Struck
by play.read.write
Summary: Lightning surpresses what she wants and feels, but perhaps a pulsian can help her to realize it. FLight. starts out smut, but develops.
1. Chapter 1

_My first story of this type, if it gets good reviews I may write more chapters. I may not be the best, but I still hope you enjoy it._

**Struck**

Lightning sat up in the middle of the night, cleaning and sharpening her weapon. It was her shift to keep watch and she was actually enjoying the silence, with Vanille in their group they almost never got this. As she thought this she looked over at Vanille, sleeping peacefully underneath Fang's protective arm. She knew the two were close, though she couldn't exactly figure out what their relationship was, one moment they were as close as sisters, and she would know, the next there was so much more to them, or so it seemed. Not that she had anything against that, in fact she understood it well enough, they were both attractive girls, nice breasts, good asses, Vanille's perky and energetic attitude, Fang's strong core and nice long legs. They were both beautiful -

_NO!_ She was a soldier; she was in control of herself. She wasn't going to let herself get drawn in by anyone, man or woman; or women in this case. She had always resisted before and she would now, she just needed a way to get rid of her built up tension, her answer, or course, was to work out. Now she just had to find somewhere to do so without waking the others.

She walked away from the camp and through a heavily wooded area; about a half a mile from camp she found an opening in the trees, she stepped into the clearing and found a flat grassy area with two large rocks at least 12 feet tall on the bank of a large slow-moving river. She stopped in the secluded area and took out her gunblade. She went to work on her routine, cutting, jumping, spinning, and jabbing as if surrounded by enemies. She trained for so long she lost track of time, she went until she could go no more. She looked up at the sky and seen the moon, it had moved much, soon it would be Fang's shift, but she had some time left.

Deciding a bath would do her good after her heavy training she walked over to the river and began to strip. She left her clothes a few steps away to stay dry, but kept her gunblade next to the river so she could reach it if need be. She stepped into the water without hesitation, but was shocked by how cold it was, she immediately felt her body tense up. She walked farther in anyway, till the water was just above her breasts. She began to relax as the gentle current of the water helped her tired muscles. She heard the sounds of pulse, the insects, the wind, the soft padding of an animal nearby, likely a small scavenger looking for food. She dipped her head under the water then came up and threw her hair back as she let out a breath, the cold striking her anew when she went under. She ran her fingers through her hair a few times, and then decided she should be getting back.

She stepped out of the water and picked up her weapon, depositing it by her clothes, or where her clothes used to be. She looked around but could find no trace of her garments. "Looking for these?" she heard a familiar voice ask. Her eyes shot up to see Fang standing by a tree holding the underwear she had been looking for only a moment ago. "They're a little skimpy aren't they?" the huntress asked, stretching the waistband of Lightning's panties.

"Hand them over." Light said, holding out a hand and keeping her face blank.

"You put on quite a show Farron, first the training, then a wet striptease, very nice." Fang said, a mocking smile coming to her lips.

Lightning's face showed no expression while inside she wondered how long Fang had been watching her. "I said hand them over." Light said, and started approaching Fang at a formidable pace, but Fang wasn't going to give in that easily. She grabbed Lightning's outstretched hand pulled and spun, pinning the naked soldier to the tree. "What the fuck, Fang!" Lightning spat out in protest.

"You don't just put on a show like that and then leave, at least not with me." The pulsian replied with a smile, and then pressed her lips to Lights. Lightning's eyes went wide for a moment, then she drove her free hand into Fang's stomach. Fang let go and Lightning took another swing with her right hand. Fang anticipated and dodge the attack, then grabbed her wrist post-swing an pinned it above her head to the tree. Light tried again with her free hand for Fang's stomach, but she avoided that one too and pinned the pinkette's second hand next to her first and tied the soldier's hands together with the belt from Lightning's discarded clothes. The pinned woman didn't even flinch when Fang drove her spear into the tree beneath her bound wrists, preventing her from lowering them. Fang lowered her hands to Lightning's waist and went in for another kiss before she felt a knee driven into her stomach. This was followed by Lightning raising her foot to Fang's collar and shoving her back. She was not going to be had by some random pulse woman. Fang approached with a smile still on her face, but Lightning was ready. Using the spear to hold her she lifted herself up and wrapped her legs around Fang's neck, then twisted and through them both to the ground, pulling the spear out in the process. She land on top of Fang, her knees on either side of the taller woman's head. She stabbed Fang's spear around one of the huntress' wrists, pinning it in place. She looked down at the pulsian trapped beneath and was surprised, she had won but the woman below her was still smiling. She adjusted herself to stand, but before she could move her legs she felt something that sent an electric tingle up her spin and down her legs. She looked down and Fang was licking her. She gasped as Fang's tongue flicked her mound. Light knew she had to leave, and now! She put her weight on one leg and lifted the other to go from on both knees to a kneeling position, which only gave Fang some more room.

The huntress dove into her prey, using only her tongue to work over the beautiful soldier above her. There was no way she was letting the gorgeous woman get away. She nibble and licked at the pinkette's folds and succeeded in getting the woman to give way and fall down with a moan a pleasure. Quick as she could Fang used her free hand to toss her spear from her wrist to a spot next to Lightning's gunblade. She then got on top of the woman before she could recover and began teasing her nipples. With one hand she was grinding the woman's center, with the other she was massaging and tweaking her one breast while her mouth attended to the other. She was enjoying this.

Lightning writhed beneath Fang's assault on her body. She had to stop this, but it felt so good. "No, Fang, no-OOOHHHHH!" her pleas were cut off by an increased assault on all parts. "I said no; now get the fuck off me!" Lightning yelled, reaching down to grab Fang's head, but before she could Fang grabbed Lightning's still bound wrists and pinned them down, then attacked a new spot behind her left ear. "No, no, no, YESSS!" Lightning's refusal turned to acceptance as Fang found a sensitive spot right behind the soldier's left ear lobe. She felt it as the woman stopped fighting her and gave in. She redoubled her attack on the spot and enjoyed the moans of pleasure in her ear. Then she came up and kissed the woman deeply, her tongue finding Lightning's, who was returning the kiss with a force. Lightning pulled out of the kiss first, needing more air. She looked Fang in the eyes and said two simple words "I've never".

"That's alright sunshine, I know what I'm doin'." Fang said with a smirk.

"You better." Light said in return. This had been Fang's doing, she better know how to do it right. Either way, she would have her revenge, but only after it stopped feeling so damn good. She let her head lay on the ground as Fang kissed her neck and massaged her breast. Then the brunette moved and began rubbing between Lightning's legs. She let a humming moan escape her as the taller woman worked to pleasure her.

"This'll sting a little." Fang said before kissing the woman beneath her and suddenly driving her fingers into her. Lightning winced but returned the kiss and let her lover bring her to the edge.

"Fang! Yes!" Lightning said. The only words before she tensed around the huntress' hand. Waves of bliss wracked her body, the woman inside her working with them to make her feel like she never had before. When this finally subsided she stayed lying on the ground, her eyes closed, her legs stretched out, her hands still bound above her head. Fang lay beside her, one hand resting on her new lover's stomach, watching the soldier recover from her first time. "Fang." The pink haired woman said suddenly.

"What's up, sunshine?" She responded, stroking Lightning's hair with her free hand.

"Tired." She said.

Fang realized the soldier must be exhausted, even with her overwhelming stamina. The training session alone would have put most down, but then adding what Fang had done to her. "Then sleep, I'm here, besides, it's my watch anyway." She said with a grin. She reached up and undid the bonds on Lightning's hands and the soldier rolled on to her side, holding on to the warm body next to her, already asleep. Fang took a deep breath and smelled Lightning's hair, which surprisingly smelled like flowers, though which one she couldn't identify. After a time, she fell asleep too, holding on to the woman next to her, never wanting this moment to end.


	2. Chapter 2

_**Sorry this took so long for such a short chapter, but I hope its as good as the first, or better.**_

_**Disclaimer:I dont own final fantasy or any characters in it.**_

**Struck**

Chapter 2

Fang woke up slowly, surprisingly comfortable on the ground. She felt an arm wrapped tight around her and assumed Vanille had had a bad dream; but this arm was far too strong to be Vanille's. She opened her eyes to an unexpected sight. They're pink haired leader was holding her tight, so close she could feel the sleeping woman breathing. Then, waking up completely, she remembered what had happened and smiled, though she was still confused. The soldier was always the first one up, and after Fang had basically forced herself on her she definitely hadn't expected for them to wake up holding each other. She watched contentedly as the woman next to her slept soundly, she stared at her realizing, without the blinding lust of before, just how beautiful Lightning was.

"I thought I've told you before not to stare." Fang heard from the still apparently sleeping soldier.

"How in all of Pulse do you always know?" She responded to the woman who still had yet to even open her eyes.

"You're always staring." She returned, moving just a little and opening her eyes to look right into those of the huntress. "Well, see anything good?" she asked sounding like a joke, but still looking serious.

"Amazing." Fang said, grinning, and then gently kissing Lightning for a moment.

"What time is it?" Light asked hoping, though she couldn't figure out why, that she wouldn't have to get up.

"Just after sunrise, the others will be gettin' up soon, but we got some time." She said, then settled in and held on tight to both the soldier and the moment.

They stayed that way for about ten minutes before Lightning heard something shuffling through the trees behind her and rolled over just enough to see a flash of red in a tree. "What was that?" she asked quickly, still not familiar with all the creatures on Pulse.

"Probably just a squirrel." She said, annoyed at the rodent for disturbing her time with Lightning.

"It was red, not grey." The soldier said, remembering the small grey squirrels on cocoon.

"There are red ones too, specially around here." She said propping herself up onto her elbow as the soldier turned back to her. "Well, sunshine, I hate to say it, but we should probably get back to the others." She then stood up, bearing all in for just a moment, then turned and walked over to the water.

Lightning lay there, dumbstruck by the sight she had just seen. The amazing Oerba Yun Fang had stood before her bare ass naked, the sun gleaming off her tanned skin, and it had been one the greatest things she had ever seen. _Wait a second, when did Fang strip?_ She thought trying to think back to the night before. She reached down and felt her wrists at that thought, realizing Fang must have untied them after she had fallen asleep. She looked up at the woman, kneeling at the water drinking and splashing some on her face, and realized she had a perfect opportunity to get her back for what she had done; not that Lightning had minded much. She walked quietly over to the warrior and looked down at her. _I'm going to enjoy this._

Fang only had a moment to wonder why Lightning's hand was on her head before her face was shoved into the icy water in front of her. She was pulled back up by the hair and just had enough time to get a breath before being held under again. When she got dragged up again she could see Lightning standing there with the same unemotional expression she always wore and just had enough time to spit out "WHAT THE FUCK, FARRON!" before being shoved under again. If she could just get her breath she would have knocked the soldier to the ground, but Lightning knew that, and that's why she wouldn't let her. When she was pulled up again Lightning finally spoke in her basic calm soldier voice.

"You took something from me last night." Under again, and back up. "And now I think you should be punished for it." Under again, and back up once more. "Or should I thank you?" Again under the water, again dragged back up, but this time Lightning turned Fang's head to face her. "I guess I'll just have to do both." She said before planting rough kiss on Fang for a few seconds, then shoving the still out of breath warrior to her back. She straddled the woman's waist and held her arms to the ground and kissed her hard a second time, this time her tongue took the time to inspect the woman's mouth before finally pulling away and hearing Fang take a deep and much needed breath. She let the huntress catch her breath while working on kissing her neck. When she heard and felt Fang's breath even out she sat up and looked her in the eye.

"Damn, sunshine, you play rough." Fang said with a grin. On hearing this Lightning leaned down and kissed her very light, barely even a peck on the lips. She then stood up and pulled Fang to her feet. She went in as if to kiss her again, but then suddenly shoved hard. Fang fell into the river with a resounding splash. She tried to surface but found herself held down by what she was sure was Lightning's foot. But this time she would not fall for same trick. She reached out from under the water and grabbed the soldier by the ankle, and just behind the knee. She dragged her into and underneath the water with her, and then adjusted her position, so they were eye to eye when they surfaced. As emeralds met sapphires both seen a fire in the other's eyes that was only intensified by the sudden onset of the adrenalin filled cold. The two women grabbed each other and their lips met hard. Fang felt her back meet the soft, moss covered bank of the river as Lightning pressed her entire body against her. She returned the kiss with the same passion and force, their tongues meeting in a battle for dominance. One that, this time, Lightning won. She felt Lightning's hands move from her face. The soldier's left hand found Fang's breast, massaging it, playing with the nipple, pinching and tweaking to add pain to the pleasure. Her right hand delved underwater and found Fang's core, and she ground her palm into it. When Lightning's lips moved to Fang's neck the warrior let out a moan of pleasure that spurred the soldier on. Fang continued to let herself be dominated by the pinkette as she felt her kiss up and down her neck and collarbone, nipping at her here and there, just shy of leaving marks. Then she felt the woman's hand adjust on her center and knew what she was going to do. "Do it, now." She said, but Lightning's hand didn't move.

"Ask nicely." Lightning said, enjoying making the woman in front of her squirm.

"Damn cocoon bitch." The frustrated pulsian said. Then Lightning ground her palm into her again and Fang let out a deep moan. "Fine." Fang said, almost in pain from want, "Please, take me, fuck me, do it now, please."

"Well, since you asked nicely." Lightning said, sounding as serious as ever, and then slowly, almost torturously so, put a single finger knuckle deep into the pulsian. She began thrusting in and out of the pulsian, once she fell into a pattern she added a second finger into the woman's folds, working her wrist to make her writhe in pleasure at her touch. On adding a third finger she picked up the pace. She stopped her assault on Fang's neck to look at her. Her head was thrown back, her arms stretched on the bank, fingers digging into the ground.

"ohhh, Lightning." Fang moaned, sending chills up the smaller woman's spine at hearing the pulsian moan her name, or maybe it was the water; probably both. Fang's panting became heavier and Lightning knew she was getting close. She gave her a hard pinch on the nipple sending her over the edge with a loud primal moaning yell that rang through the trees and took Lightning's breath away. As she started to come down Lightning pulled her fingers out and moved beside her, putting her side against the bank and resting her arm on it, crossing over Fang's.

"Enjoy yourself?" Lightning asked, enjoying the look on her lovers face.

"What do you think?" Fang returned with smile and leaned forward to give a soft kiss.

"We should get back now." Lightning said, "The others are probably wondering where we're at."

"Yeah, Vanille's probably worried, wakin' up without me there." Fang said as the two women extracted themselves from the water.

At the redhead's name Lightning felt a pull in her gut. Were the two pulsians in a relationship? She had to figure this out. "Fang?" She said.

"What's up, sunshine?" She said pulling on her shorts.

"You and Vanille. You aren't together are you?" She asked, not sure she wanted to hear the answer, but remaining calm nonetheless.

"No, we ain't a pair. We been friends for as long as I can remember, but nothing more. Not that I've never considered it, but I don't think I'm quite her type, if ya know what I mean." Fang said, leaning against a tree, now fully dressed.

"Good." Lightning said, tightening her belt around her vest as she spoke, "I won't have to deal with her being pissed at me."

"You better hope so." Fang replied smirking, "Even Titan wouldn't want to stand before a pissed off Vanille."

Lightning picked up and sheathed her gun blade, and threw the spear to Fang, who caught it in one hand. "Then we should get going." She said; and as they set off back towards camp, Lightning couldn't help but think that this forced journey of theirs may just prove to be entertaining after all.

_**A/N: I am not sure if I want to add Vanille to this romance, or keep it between Fang and Light. Leave reviews on that as well as anything else you can think of(pertaining to the story). And a big thanks to all the people who left good reviews, I'm glad you enjoyed it.**_


	3. Chapter 3

_**Third chapter up and running. Thank you to all those who posted reviews, it was very helpful and I am always glad to have them.**_

_**i still dont own final fantasy xiii.**_

Chapter 3

Lightning sat on the one of the logs they were using as seats around their camp. She was quiet, calm, and as expressionless as ever. She watched as the others told stories around the fire, wondering when if anyone would break into a ghost story to complete the obvious cliché. Hope and Snow were both their usual selves, and Sazh actually seemed happier than usual. Vanille seemed a little less than her usual self, quieter and not quite as bubbly, but that was to be expected. Then there was Fang. Her grin present as she listened to Snow tell a story about N.O.R.A. She looked as good as ever. It had been a week since their adventure by the river, and, as per Lightning's request, Fang hadn't said a word about it to anyone in the group, even Vanille. They hadn't had a chance to be alone since then, and Lightning was starting to wonder if it would happen again, or if this had been a onetime thing.

All of a sudden Vanille stood up, breaking Lightning's chain of thought. "I'm going for a walk." She said out of nowhere.

"All right, but don't be gone too long now." Fang said

"I'll go with you." Lightning said as she stood up, "Might as well check the perimeter."

"Fine." Vanille said, a little curter than Lightning had expected. Then they set off away from the camp. After they got a short distance from the camp they turned and started to circle around it. Lightning could tell by now something was definitely wrong with Vanille. They had been walking for almost ten minutes and the girl hadn't said a word; that and the fact that she was walking somewhat behind Lightning, instead of skipping around ahead of as she usually did. Lightning seen a clearing up ahead and decided it would be a good place to stop for a moment.

It was a small clearing, about twelve feet across. When Lightning stopped Vanille automatically went and stood at a nearby tree, waiting for her to continue on. Lightning decided that whatever was bothering the girl needed to be solved before it got in the way, she had been this way for about a week now and it wasn't going away. She decided the direct approach would be best. "Vanille." She said.

"What." She returned simply, something else that Lightning noticed was out of character.

"What's wrong?" Lightning said, trying to figure out how to solve an emotional problem when she had so little experience with them.

"What do you mean." The redhead said, looking back at the soldier.

"Something is bothering you and you need to let it out. Now what is it?" Lightning said, cutting to the core of the problem.

"It's nothing." Vanille said, turning away again.

"It's not nothing, Vanille; now tell me what's wrong." Lightning commanded, asking hadn't worked so maybe this would. It did.

"How could you do it?" Vanille said, looking back at Lightning again, "What in hell made you think that was a good idea?"

"Do what?" Lightning asked, suddenly confused.

"Don't try to deny it, I already know." Vanille said; she was pissed now.

"Deny what?" Lightning asked, getting defensive.

"You fucked Fang!" Vanille said.

It was not an accusation; it was a statement of fact. One that left Lightning dumbfounded; more by the blatant honesty and solidity with which she said it than by what she actually said. She may not have shown it but she was surprised that the seemingly innocent girl would say such a thing. _How does she know though? Fang must have told her. Damn pulsian can't keep a secret._

"What? Got nothing to say? Huh?" Vanille said, bringing Lightning back to the conversation. "Well? You gonna try and deny it or not?"

"How did you know? Did Fang tell you?" Lightning asked calmly. Vanille did not remain as such.

"Fuck no she didn't tell me! She tells me everything, but she didn't tell me this. That just makes it worse. Let me guess. You told her not to. If you didn't want people to know you shouldn't have done it in the first place! Did your keen soldier mind not think of that beforehand? Or is it just that you figured since you from Cocoon you could take whatever you want? She's just a pulse l'cie I can use her for whatever I want. If that's what you thought then I say fuck. You. Or were you going to try for that anyway, you fucking Cocoon whore. She's my friend and you used her and you think I'm just gonna let that slide?"

Lightning didn't know how to respond. Fang had been right; a pissed off Vanille was worse than herd of charging adamantoise. Titan would fall before her without her ever attacking. Lightning just wanted to curl up into a little ball and hide; but she stayed strong and showed no fear. She knew the truth, and Vanille needed to too.

"She came onto me." Lightning said. She would have said more, but she didn't have time.

"What the hell do you mean she came onto you? Fang would never do something like that. Sure she's the big tough warrior in front of everyone else, but she still has feelings. She would be too scared that you would be straight and turn her down. She wouldn't risk losing someone as a friend just so she could fuck them. Something you don't seem to have in common with her. I saw the two of you layin' there by the river, just sleepin' away. I would have said something then but you were both bare ass naked! I'm guessin' screwing some random woman really wears you out, don't it? Don't answer that. I don't want to know, unlike you Cocoon sluts we pulse women care about the people we sleep with. Fang wouldn't just fuck someone, and I really don't like you insinuating that she would, it pisses me off, and you DON'T want to see me when I'm pissed off. What? You thought this was mad? This is nothing compared to what will happen if you hurt Fang! Do. You. Understand. Me?" Vanille emphasized each of those last four words by poking Lightning in the chest.

Lightning wanted to turn and run. Normally she would have broken the finger of whoever did that, but now she didn't know what to do. She decided to continue with the truth.

"She was my first." Lightning said, and waited for Vanille to respond.

"WHAT?!" She shouted, still pissed.

"Fang was my first." She said again, glad for a chance to defend herself. "She is the only one I've been with, ever." Vanille did not take that the way Lightning expected.

"What, so you got to Gran Pulse and decided you didn't want to die a virgin so you just fucked Fang? Used her to make sure you knew what it was like? Well wish granted. Now you can die happy knowing you fucked someone, no matter that she happened to be Oerba Yun Fang. One of the only two remaining people from the wonderful world of Gran Pulse. No matter that she's been out of touch with the world for FIVE HUNDRED YEARS! None of that matters because the great Lightning Farron didn't want to die a virgin! I hope it was worth it."

Lightning sighed. This was harder than she was expecting. Oh well, try again.

"Vanille, she fucked me. In fact she tied my hands up and held me down to do so." Lightning said before Vanille could start again.

SMACK! The sound resounded through the trees and Lightning found herself facing a new direction, the left side of her face burning. Lightning didn't retaliate. That would have only ended badly. As a soldier she was trained to know that you triumph by knowing when to fight, and when not to fight; and now was not the time to fight.

"Don't you dare say that! Fang is the best person I have ever known. Just because you don't want to feel guilty doesn't mean you can talk down about Fang." Vanille said, almost crying from anger at Lightning and fear that she may be telling the truth.

Lightning turned her head back to face Vanille, ignoring the burning in her cheek. She had to make her understand the truth. Lightning had enjoyed being with Fang, she wanted it to happen again, but if Vanille didn't approve, that would be impossible.

"I'm not talking down about Fang. She took what she wanted and what she wanted turned out to be me. It just happens that I enjoyed it. Yes I fought it at first, but I'm glad she did what she did. But I did not start this, she did. I didn't take advantage of her, she took me. I was wondering if Fang had used me, but if what you're saying is true, I don't have to worry about that, not that I was going to anyway." Lightning said, all while keeping eye contact. She didn't know if Vanille was going to slap her again, but she didn't care either. She had spoken the truth, what happened next would happen, and she would deal with it.

"So you're telling the truth?" Vanille said quietly, the anger gone from her voice; which made Lightning feel exponentially better. "It was really Fang who started this?" Vanille had never known Lightning to lie, she was an honest person. But it didn't sound like Fang to force herself on someone else. Vanille knew Fang had a crush on her at one time, but had never followed through in order to maintain their friendship, which Vanille was glad about. So why had she done this to Lightning, unless she felt differently about her. Maybe she should ask Fang about this; that would probably be the best.

"Vanille?" Lightning said, interrupting the thoughts of the woman in question. She returned her gaze to Lightning. "Vanille, can you do something for me?"

"What is it?" Vanille asked, suddenly curious. Why would Lightning ask her for something now?

"I want you to talk to Fang." The soldier said simply.

"Why?" Vanille asked. It wasn't like Lightning to get someone else to do something for her. Sometimes she didn't even ask for help when she needed it.

"She hasn't spoken to me since last week. I don't know what's happening with her, at least in when it comes to… Well, you know. And if you were to agree to, or I mean to approve of. Well she would probably; well she would be more likely to." Lightning said uncharacteristically, breaking eye contact and not finishing the sentence.

Vanille was surprised. Lightning was nervous, and little embarrassed. Why would she be, she was Lightning Farron, stone cold soldier. Then it hit her, Lightning actually had feelings for Fang. And the emotionless soldier didn't know how to deal with them, which actually didn't surprise her.

"Don't worry, I'll talk to her." Vanille said, her voice back to its normal bubbly self, "Now let's get back, don't want them to worry, now do we?" Then she skipped away, leading back to camp.

_Damn, she bounces back fast._ Lightning followed the bubbly redhead on their way back to camp.

…

Lightning and Vanille walked back into the camp, well Lightning walked, Vanille skipped. Lightning looked around as they enter the camps clearing; Snow and Sazh were gone and Hope was asleep. Fang was sitting back on one of the logs gathered around the campfire.

"Hey there Vanille." Fang said as they entered, "Sunshine." Lightning nodded in response as Vanille skipped over to her friend, hips swinging. "Well you seem to have perked up." Fang added, looking at Vanille.

"Yep. Where are the others?" Vanille said, looking around for Snow and Sazh.

"They went to get more firewood. The kid decided to catch some extra zs." Fang said, pointing at Hope with her thumb.

Vanille looked as Lightning, who had sat down with her back facing them, and then back at Fang. _Well, might as well do it now._ "Fang, I want to talk about something." She said.

"What's on your mind?" the huntress asked. It was definitely not one of their usual chats.

"I want to talk about Lightning." Vanille said, causing the huntress to look at the soldier, who didn't seem to be able to hear them, before turning back to respond.

"What about Sunshine?" Fang said, wondering if this was going to have something to do with what her and Lightning had done a week before.

"I know you had sex with her." Vanille said plainly, then, on seeing the look on Fang's face, quickly added, "And it's okay, I'm not upset. At least not anymore."

"Hold up a sec." Fang said, "How do you know about that?"

"I seen you two laying there by the river." Vanille said, turning her head and blushing, "I didn't mean to, I just sort I stumbled onto it. But when I seen you were naked I left. Fast." She looked back at Fang when she finished. "At first I thought it was Lightning. I assumed you wouldn't make a move so soon, so I thought she had just used you for herself. That you only agreed because you thought she was hot."

"So you knew about me and Sunshine?" Fang asked

"Yep." Vanille said and nodded

"And you were mad at her because you thought she used me?" Fang asked, working things out in her head.

"Mmhm." Vanille said, nodding once more.

"And she's still alive?" Fang asked, breaking out into a grin.

"She explained to me that it wasn't her that started it." Vanille said.

"Oh, I see." Fang said, looking at the soldier.

"She also asked me to talk to you." Vanille said, drawing the woman's attention again, "I think she's worried since you haven't spoken to her since it happened. Not that she would ever admit to it."

"I figured she didn't want anything to happen anymore. Assumed that was why she asked me not tell anyone." Fang said

"I think she just wanted to keep it a secret. After all, she did ask me if I would 'approve', and that if I did you might be more likely to go back to her. I think she actually cares about you. Even though she probably wouldn't admit that either." Vanille said, looking to Lightning, then back at Fang, who was now staring at Lightning again. "Well, go talk to her, or do I have to do that for **you **too?"

Fang got up and walked over to Lightning, standing just behind her. "Hey there Sunshine, have a nice walk." She said. The soldier didn't even turn around to respond.

"Isn't that what you and Vanille were just talking about?" Lightning asked, even though she had heard the entire conversation.

"And a very interesting conversation it was. But it's not exactly like you to get other people to do the talking for you, now is it?" Fang said, "So I was just wondering; what's on **your** mind?"

"Fang?" Lightning said

"Yeah?" Fang said.

"Yes," Lightning said, "or no."

" 'Scuse me?" Fang asked, confused.

"Yes or no?" Lightning asked again, this time turning around to look Fang in the eye.

Fang grinned as realization dawned on her. _Leave it to Sunshine to keep it simple._ "Well, yes, of course. Isn't it obvious, Sunshine? I'm surprised you even have to ask." Lightning simply nodded and turned back around. Fang sat down next to her and wrapped an arm around the pinkette; who laid her head on the taller woman's shoulder. Vanille thought the sight adorable, but resisted the urge to go _awwwwwww_.

They stayed that way until they heard Snow and Sazh returning, at which point they moved to opposite ends of the camp. It wasn't long after their return that everyone, who was still awake, decided to go to sleep. Snow would take the first watch. Lightning slept better than normal that night, the question of her and Fang answered. Fang did the opposite, she instead spent the not pondering what path this new relationship with their defacto leader would take.

_**A/N: okay so i didn't add Vanille, this will stay a FLight. I know this is mostly dialogue, but I felt if its going to be a full story it needed more substance. dont worry though, ill add more heat later. don't know how long it will take, this chapter itself was, for some reason, hard to write, but ill try and get the next one going asap. as always i ask that you leave reviews.**_


	4. Chapter 4

_**Next chapter up and running obviously. this is a long one, specially compared to my others. Hope it turnes out well. Please Leave reviews so i'll know how i did.**_

Chapter 4

Fang looked at behemoth in front of her. It was big, easily bigger than most; and there were two of them. She looked at the pink haired soldier next to her, her only partner. The other four had drawn the second behemoth away to deal with it, but it was slow going. She and Lightning on the other hand, had already got it to change to its bipedal form. Their fight would be over soon.

Fang and Lightning both struck at the creature, Lightning landing at least double the hits that Fang did, but with less force. Lightning finished with a back handspring and a shot from her gunblade. Fang staggered the creature just as Lightning broke into a sprint, at her. She launched the behemoth into the air and then dropped to one knee, laying her spear over it at an angle. Lightning never broke stride as she put one foot onto the flat of Fang's spear. At that moment the huntress brought her arm down on the other end, and sent the smaller woman flying into the air. Lightning did a summersault and came down on the beast in midair, sword sinking deep into its chest, then pushed off, rocketing the beast at Fang, who was waiting below. The pulsian planted her spear into the ground and rolled out of the way just as the behemoth crashed down, impaling itself on the spear. Lighting landed on the stomach of the felled monster and grabbed Fang's spear from its chest before running after the woman who was already half-way to the other battle. Lightning didn't even have to wonder why she left it, the two were operating in perfect synchronization. Fang stopped and turned just before entering the second battle zone, where the behemoth was still in its four footed form. Lightning threw the spear to Fang as she ran, who caught the weapon and immediately threw it straight into the air before dropping again to one knew, cupping her hands as she did. Lightning put one foot in Fangs hands and the pulsian threw her into the air. She caught Fang's spear on the way up and, at the apex of her flight, threw it down at the beast that was still distracted by the other four l'cie it was fighting. The spear went through the beast neck, yet it continued to fight. Fang joined the others against it as Lightning began her descent, in a full dive. The beast was weak, and with Fang's help it was staggered in seconds, before it could transform. Fang landed a kick to the underneath of the monster's jaw, since her spear was stuck in its neck, which knocked it into a stumbling position on two feet. As this happened Lightning reached out a hand and grabbed ahold of the now horizontal spear and spun herself around it twice before releasing and returning, not so high, to above the beast's head. Then she came down and landed on top of it, driving her sword into its face. She jumped off as the monster came crashing down on its back, Fang's spear now sticking through its neck completely.

Fang walked over to retrieve her spear and held out her arm as she did so. Lightning saw no need for the gesture but accepted it anyway, bumping her wrist against Fang's as they passed each other; at least it was better that Snow trying to get a high five.

"Damn soldier girl. When did you learn how to fly?" Sazh asked as Lightning returned to the group.

"That was awesome!" Hope added, his eyes wide and his jaw nearly on the ground.

"What? No praise for little ol' me?" Fang asked with a smile as she reunited with the others, spear in hand.

"You were good too, Fang." Vanille said to her friend.

"I know," Fang said, "but they're right. This one was almost all Sunshine." Fang rested her arm on Lightning's shoulder as she said this. If it had been anyone else, Lightning would have shrugged it off and stepped away, but with Fang, she was glad to have her nearby.

"Well, let's get going, we're almost there." Vanille said, skipping ahead of the rest of the group and turning around to face them while she waited for them to catch up.

"I'll second that." Sazh said as they started towards her, "Between that Taejin Tower and these triple-XL behemoths, I could really use a break."

"What's wrong old man?" Snow asked, patting Sazh on the back, "Can't keep up?"

"Oh I can keep up alright. It's just really exhausting to do so." Sazh said

Vanille had been right. They had barely walked for ten minutes before they reached their destination. It wasn't much, but it was more than they had seen on Gran Pulse so far.

"Well, ladies and gentleman, here it is. Home sweet home." Fang said, "Oerba, Village proper."

They explored the village fairly extensively; finding a surprising amount of it intact. There were a few beasts to take care of, all of which were dispatched easily; they're only real trouble coming from a simple yet annoyingly long battle with a vetella which left Sazh cursing the "Damn shielded bastard." The high point of the search when they found something they hadn't expected to find but where glad was there.

"Beds!" Hope exclaimed, jumping onto the nearest one, "They're still intact!" He added, bouncing on the one he was sitting on. He turned and lay on his back. "And they're soft." He said, before sitting back up and watching as both Snow and Vanille found the other beds in the room and tested them out.

"Kids right." Snow said, swaying on the bed he was sitting on to see if it could hold his weight. Suddenly Vanille jumped up from the bed and ran out the back door, or the hole where one used to be.

Suddenly they heard a shriek and all heads perked up. Then Vanille said "There's Three more in here." The rest of the group followed Vanille's path to a nearby building that was slightly smaller, one room instead of two, that contained three beds, two of which appeared to be larger than any of the others.

"Well, look at that." Fang said, turning away from the room and to the others, "Looks like we got ourselves full set; two rooms with three each. Guess that gives one room to you guys, and another just for us girls." As she finished the sentence Fang grinned and looked at Lightning, who didn't seem to acknowledge the gesture.

"Fang's right." Lightning said using her soldiers command voice, "This place is calm enough that if we can find doors for these buildings, then no one should need to be on watch. We can rest up and continue on in the morning."

"I don't know." Sazh said, drawing their attention, "Something tells me that if we go any farther forward, we ain't gonna be comin' back."

"What are you saying?" Lightning asked

"I'm sayin' I'm tired." Sazh said, "Now I'll do whatever it takes to get Dajh back, but at the moment, he's crystal; and so is your sister. And if our friends here are any example," he gestured to Fang and Vanille at this, "then they ain't goin' anywhere. If I have to die to make sure Dajh is safe, then so be it, I'm fine with that, but if I can live through it because we took one day to rest, then I say we take that day."

Lightning let what he had said sink in. She had been so focused on getting Serah back that she hadn't thought about how strung out they would be when they got there. She looked around the group and noticed that, despite their efforts to hold themselves up; every single one of them was slouching. For the first time she felt her own muscles were sore and worn out. Perhaps he was right and they needed a break. "What do the rest of you think?" she asked the others as she looked around to each of them.

"I'm with him." Hope said, to everyone's surprise. "I'll do everything I can to save Cocoon, and if we leave tomorrow, I'll give it my all. But I'm not sure I'm ready to face it, not yet at least."

Lightning looked at the young boy; it had taken courage to say what he had said. It made her wonder if he was right. Were they ready to face what was ahead? She looked around the room at her team. They were strong, no question about it, but were they strong enough? And what of the pulsians, this was their home, was she really going to tear them away from it so soon, just for herself?

"Fine." Lightning said, "Tomorrow we rest, after that we begin training. The cie'th stones will give us our targets. Once we've gotten as strong as we can get, or we run out of time," she pointed to her l'cie brand at this, "then we'll move on."

At this everyone visibly relaxed. Tomorrow would be the first day that they didn't spend walking and fighting. They had covered countless miles so far, and tomorrow they could rest. But that was tomorrow.

"Well, let's get moving, we need to find some doors for these places." Lightning said.

They spent the next few hours looking for and installing doors onto the rooms. They had to get creative and search for scrap metal and spare parts to build them, but they got them built by the time night rolled around. They also managed get enough spare parts for Hope to start fixing Bhakti, which Vanille seemed to think was one of the greatest things to happen since she had woken up from crystal.

The group sat in the second room of the first building that had contained beds. They had moved in some chairs to sit in and were following their usual routine of winding down. The only real difference being that they were indoors and had candlelight instead of a campfire. Hope was sitting on the floor with Vanille behind him, looking over his shoulder as he worked on fixing Bhakti, occasionally turning to stare at her when she got into his light, at which point she would move and then proceed to get in the way again. Lightning, as usual, remained quiet while the others talked, not wanting to be caught up in the pointless conversation. After a while she decided she had gotten tired of listening to them babble.

"Lights out." Lightning said as she stood up, hearing an unexpected chorus of whines from her group. They were usually ready to sleep by this time, worn out from the fighting and traveling of the day.

"C'mon sis, It's not often we get time off, and I plan on sleeping as late as I can. So there really isn't a need to hit the hay this early." Snow said, trying to make case for them continuing to stay up.

"I'm not your sister." Lightning said, glaring at Snow.

"But he's right, Sunshine. We ain't gotta get up to beat the beasts, so we ain't got no need to crash so soon." Fang said, drawing Lightning's attention from the larger man, "Besides, I got us a little celebration planned." At this Fang reached behind her chair and pulled out three bottles, two that looked like wine bottles, but slightly smaller, and one shorter stout square one with a green fluid in it.

"Whatcha got there?" Sazh asked, not recognizing any of the drinks.

"This is the good stuff." Fang said, showing of the two bottles as she set the square one down, "It's called Fire-lite. Not sure what the real name is but that's what I remember. That and it's awesome."

Lightning sat down as Fang got out some glasses; she was obviously outvoted in this. They all watched as Fang opened the first bottle and poured some into a small glass. The stuff was nearly invisible, the only reason they could see it was because of a slight orange tint it had when the light passed through it. Fang handed the glass to Sazh, and then poured one for Snow and another for Vanille. She offered one to Lightning, who refused, but Fang just kept her hand out until Lightning accepted that Fang wasn't going to let her say no (not that it would be the first time) and took the glass. She then poured herself a glass before setting the bottle down; it was unspoken but unanimous that Hope wouldn't be drinking any, but he was too busy with the robot to care.

Lightning took a sip of the alcoholic drink after Fang raised her glass to signify it was ready. The drink was nothing like what she had expected. She rarely drank, and on the occasions when she had she had hated every one of them, but this was different. The liquid was smooth and fluid with a multitude of subtle flavors, not anywhere near the harsh and strong taste she had expected.

"Wow, that's pretty good." Snow said, and then took a long and oversized drink, draining the small glass.

"Might oughta slow down there big fella. This stuff packs a punch." Fang said as Snow filled his glass half full again.

"I can handle myself." Snow said before taking another drink.

He was wrong. By the time they got to the second bottle, which didn't take long with the number of people and the size of the bottles, Snow had drank twice as much as the others and was showing the signs. He was getting louder and slurring his words to nearly incoherent mumbles. At halfway through the second bottle, which was accomplished with very little help from the others, he tried to stand and fell down. At this Sazh helped the larger man to his feet and guided him to his the room, and moment later a loud thunk was heard. Sazh returned to inform them that Snow was already passed out on one of the beds. The man then sat down and poured himself some more of the stuff, but learned from the larger idiot and made it a small amount.

After some time had passed and what little conversation there was died down, Sazh decided to turn in as well, finishing his glass before leaving the room. Lightning reached over and poured herself only her second glass that since they had started, Fang, Snow, and Sazh had drank most of it mostly Snow. Fang took the bottle when Lightning was done with it. Seeing that the woman had just poured her second one, and that Vanille was still on her first, busy watching Hope work, she decided to forego the glass and drank straight from the bottle.

Lightning had a pretty strong buzz going by the time she finished her glass, though she wouldn't have said she was drunk. She looked at the bottle Fang had in her hand and wondered if there was any left. She didn't drink much, but this stuff was good, and it wasn't like they were going anywhere tomorrow.

"Hey…Fang." Lightning said, adding the pause to make sure she didn't slur her words, "Any left?"

"Nope." Fang said, shaking the empty bottle, the slightest hint of a slur in her words.

"What's that?" Lightning asked, pointing at the unopened square bottle.

"It's…" Fang said picking up the bottle and looking at it, but finding no label whatsoever, "It is…" she said, pulling out the oversized stopper and looking at it. She held the fluid under her nose and smelled it before turning to the soldier and finishing with "It is green."

"Pour me some." Lightning said, holding out her glass, moving it to compensate for the sway the tipsy woman had. "That's good." She added after her glass had gotten enough to try the drink. She took a sip of the drink and shrugged before throwing back the glass and finishing the green liquid. "I'm going to bed before you get me drunk." She said to Fang.

Fang took a long swig straight from the square bottle, before putting the stopper back in and saying "Me too." Lightning walked to the door slowly, but without ever losing her balance or composure. Fang was not so lucky. Halfway from her chair to the door she lost her balance and caught herself with both hands out to her side, but made it to the door without any more incidents.

"How long before you're done?" Lightning asked Hope

"At least another hour." The young boy said, looking frustrated at the slow progress of his work.

Lightning simply nodded in response, before following Fang out the door and in the direction of their room. Fang was already into the building by the time Lightning got there. She walked in the door and was almost immediately shoved against the wall by Fang. The huntress' body was pressed against hers, her hands on the wall on either side of the soldier. Fang pressed her lips against the pinkette's, surprising the smaller woman. She quickly recovered though, and returned the kiss, placing on hand on Fang's side, and putting the other behind the pulsian's head intertwining her fingers with the woman's hair. Their tongues worked together and against each other at the same time.

When they finally broke the kiss Fang looked at Lightning and said, "I've been wantin to do that for a while." And it was true. It had been three weeks since their encounter by the river, two since they had declared themselves a couple, even if only to each other. And Vanille. They hadn't had a chance to be alone together since then what with all the beasts and the large amount of ground they covered every day.

Fang kissed her again and began undoing Lightning's belt; an idea the soldier liked. She helped the taller woman undo her clothes until she was standing in her panties, bra, and sweater. She shook off the sweater as she kissed the other woman again, and then removed the pulsian's sari and top; she wasn't surprised to find the huntress didn't wear a bra underneath it. She ran her hands up Fang's front the massage her breasts as she began to kiss the larger woman's neck. She felt Fang reach around behind her and undo her bra, which she let fall to the ground before reaching down and pulling off her last remaining article of clothing.

At this Fang took a step back to admire the sight of the Cocoon native in front of her, and it was an amazing sight. Lightning stood, full bare, in front of her. Palms pressed flat against the wall, chest out, on leg on the ground, the other bent at the knee so her foot was against the wall. She had a hungry look in her eye Fang had only seen once before. She only managed to get out one word, "Damn." Before the woman, inhibitions lowered by the alcohol, literally tackled her, sending the two of them falling onto one of the larger beds.

The soldier lay atop the pulsian, her tackle having put the both on the bed. She kissed the woman, moving her hands up her bare stomach, then down to the hem of her shorts. She slipped her fingers into them and pulled down both the shorts and panties at the same time, never breaking their kiss. When the garments reached her ankles Fang kicked them off, sending them near the pile of clothes left by the wall. The pinkette then began pressing her right hand into the larger woman's core while her left massaged the woman's breasts. She kissed down the tan woman's neck and collarbone, then gently bit and nibbled her way back up. Fang wrapped her arms around the woman and returned the process, kissing and nibbling her way up Lightning's neck, then kissing a point behind Lightning's ear. At this the soldier halted her progress on the other woman, letting out a moan and turning her head to give Fang more access to the spot. This struck a chord in Fang's memory, it was the same spot she kissed their first time that had the woman stop, it was a soft spot; she was going to remember this.

Fang used the distraction to wrap her legs around the woman on top of her and flip them over so she was now on top, straddling the smaller woman. She moved and gave her a forceful kiss. When they broke the kiss Lightning moved one hand to Fang's shoulder, while the other remained between the pulsian's legs. Then, to Fang's surprise, she flipped the two of them back, so she was positioned over her, one knee set between the tan woman's legs, her left hand on the bed beside the woman's chest, supporting the soldier as she proceeded to gently kiss and bite her way down Fang's neck and chest to her breast. She resumed massaging the woman's core as she kissed, sucked, and nibbled at the huntress' nipples, eliciting a few soft moans from the woman beneath her.

Lightning brought herself away from Fang's chest and leaned close, putting her head right next to the elder woman's; she could hear her ragged breathing. Then she adjusted her hand and slipped a single finger into the pulsian's dripping entrance. Fang leaned her head back as Lightning fell into a steady rhythm. After a few minutes she brought herself closer to Lightning's already close ear and whispered so quietly, that it surprised the soldier that she had to listen to hear it, "Sunshine…more." A request Lightning had no problem following through with. She added a second finger to join the first, and pulled herself away from the pulsian to gain more leverage. She put more force into her thrusts, sliding into the woman with a force, then curling her fingers upwards as she pulled back out, almost completely, and then thrusting her fingers back inside.

As Fang began to adapt to the new position Lightning had gained the soldier changed it once again. She added a third finger to the mix, and began putting more force into her thrusts. Fang moaned at the introduction of a third finger, and began grinding her hips into Lightning's hand. The soldier was putting all of herself into the thrusts now, her entire strength and weight was behind it, and it showed. The bed was rocking back and forth precariously. Fang dragged her fingers down Lightning's back, and then put a white knuckle grip on the sides of the mattress. She moaned and, through struggling breath, said "Yes, sunshine yes." This spurred Lightning on. She found new strength and thrust hard into the huntress.

Fang let out a loud, low moan that reverberated off all sides of the building. Her back arched and her head was thrown back. Lightning did not let up. She continued thrusting into the woman and rode out the orgasm. Just when Fang thought she could take no more a crash resounded through the room and both women dropped suddenly. Lightning braced herself with both hands when they fell, pulling out of Fang to do so. They looked around and realized that the bed had broken. Fang, still out of breath and recovering, started to laugh. She threw her head back and laughed like this was the funniest thing ever.

"What's so funny?" Lightning asked, using all her willpower not to succumb to the contagious nature of the woman's laugh.

"This bed…" Fang started, talking through laughing fits, "lasted five hundred years..." another fit of laughing, "But one time with us." She couldn't finish, she began laughing uncontrollably.

Lightning got up and walked to their clothes as Fang laughed. She got dressed and by the time she was done Fang's fit had subsided into random bouts. She picked up the huntress' garb and brought it over to her. Fang dressed through her laughing fits while staying on the ground level mattress.

"We should sleep." Lightning said, turning towards one of the still intact beds.

"Oh come on, Sunshine. Lay with me." Fang said, patting the bed next to her.

"We probably shouldn't." Lightning said, not turning back.

Fang reached up and grabbed Lightning by the cap, using it to reel her in till she was sitting on the bed. She wrapped her arms around the soldier's waist and rested her head on the pinkette's shoulder. "I don't want to sleep alone." Fang said as the soldier's hands rested on her own, "Please Sunshine."

"Well, maybe for a little while." Lightning finally consented. She lay on her side and Fang did the same. She felt content as the larger woman moved close and pressed against her back, her arm still wrapped around her. "Just a little while." She repeated quietly, before dozing off in the comfort of her girlfriend's arms, with Fang doing the same just minutes later.

_**a/n: So i tried to add some action in at the beginning, i thought it turned out alright, but its always good to have an outside opinion. Leave reviews so i can keep getting better and writing more for all to read.**_


	5. Chapter 5

_**Okay, next one is up. This one is a mostly a transition chapter, but i still hope it turned out as good as the others, but its not my job to judge that, its yours. so read and enjoy, and review if you feel like it, every one helps.**_

Chapter 5

Lightning was awake, and she didn't like it. She was too comfortable. She didn't know why or how, all she knew is she was content and she didn't want it to end. As long as she was asleep it would continue, if she woke up it would be over, and she really didn't want whatever this was to be over. She just wanted to be like this forever.

*ahem* What was that? Lightning heard something, barely, but it was there. Now she had to wake up. Her ears were coming online just ahead of the rest of her, but she was still doing so very slowly.

"Ahem" she heard again. That's a person…clearing their throat, nearby. Lightning opened her eyes and, after a few seconds, realized what she was seeing; a pair of legs in front of her. She turned her head to see Vanille standing over her with her hands on her hips.

"Comfy?" the redhead asked.

"Mmhm." Was all Lightning could gather in response.

"Well at least you two have clothes on this time." Vanille said, then softly kicked the bedframe that lay on the floor, "So this is what we heard crashing a little while ago."

"Little while? How long have we been asleep?" Lightning asked, rubbing her eyes as her memories started to come back.

"How should I know?" the pulsian asked, "But based on when this thing crashed I'd say about a half hour, hour tops."

"What's with the noise, Sunshine?" Fang asked from behind Lightning, tightening her arm around her as she did.

"It's Vanille." Lightning said, not bothering to turn around. Fang lifted her head from the mattress and looked at her friend.

"Well hey there." Fang said to the younger woman, a grin spreading across her face, "Looks like ya caught us again."

"Hi Fang." Vanille said cheerfully, "And yes I did. But unless you want the boys to catch you, you might want to move."

"She's right." Lightning said as she sat up, Fang's arm still around her waist.

"Ohhh, don't go Sunshine." Fang whined at the soldier, and then did her best impression of Vanille's pout that had convinced so many people to do what she wanted.

"Sorry Fang, but we can't let them find out. Not just yet at least." Lightning said, then stood and stepped away from the huntress, an act that took every ounce of willpower that she had. She chose the smaller of the two beds left to lay in, but it would be a while before she fell asleep again. Even ignoring the chatting of the other two women, she was having trouble adjusting to the considerable lack of Fang in this bed.

"You did it wrong." Vanille said to Fang, drawing her attention away from the soldier lying on the bed, "You forgot to tilt your head." She added, slouching her shoulders, tilting her head and pouting.

"I'll remember that next time." Fang said, "Well damn, how am I supposed to sleep on this thing now?" At this she looked the broken bed up and down.

"Well, I may not be Lightning, but I think that other bed could hold two people." Vanille said, looking past Fang at the last of the beds, "So you can sleep here on this broken thing, or share with me, if you think Lightning won't get jealous."

"Well, you're right, you ain't no Sunshine. But I would still be glad to share the bed with you." Fang said as her and Vanille laid down on the other bed. Vanille fell asleep quickly, but Fang, despite having Vanille to hold on to, still missed her Sunshine. Despite this, they all fell asleep soon enough, ready to have a day off.

….

Lightning was conscious, and she hated it. She would rather be dead than awake right now, her entire body was sore, her mouth was like cotton, and her head felt like it had already exploded and was trying to do so again. Her entire being hurt. She just wanted to curl up and go back to sleep.

"Rise and shine." Vanille said as she opened a latch that let swung open a hole in the wall. The crude rendition of a window sent rays of sunlight washing over Lightning. She moaned as the light and noise, even threw her closed eyes, spiked the pain in her skull. She also heard a similar noise from Fang at the same time.

"Vanille, what the hell is wrong with you?" Lightning asked, grabbing the front of her skull as she spoke. She felt like she had fallen off of Cocoon and landed face first on rocks.

"I don't get hangovers, never have. I don't know why." Vanille said in her usual bubbly voice. Lightning finally managed to open her eyes to see Vanille sitting beside Fang on the bed. "So whatcha wanna do Fang? We got a day off."

"I want you to kill me." Fang said, her face in her hands. "Just take my spear and run it through my head; if you haven't already."

"I told you that stuff was a bad idea when you got it out, now you're no fun." Vanille said, "You still need to get up though."

"Why would we want to do that?" Lightning asked, focusing her breathing to try and make the pain stop.

"Well, Snow's already up and he drank more than both of you." Vanille said, trying to play on their pride.

"Oh I gotta see this." Fang said as she rolled herself out of the bed and onto her hands and knees.

"Not what I meant, but okay." Vanille said as she jumped up and waited at the door for Fang. "You comin' Lightning?"

"Yeah, yeah. I'll be there." Light said as she sat up. She reached the door the same time as Fang and the three of them walked over to the nearby building where the guys were waiting.

Vanille led the trio of woman into the building. Sazh and Snow were both sitting in chairs while Hope was tinkering with Bhakti again. Sazh looked usual, just a little worn out. Snow looked like he had been trampled by adamantoise. Vanille walked over to watch Hope work while Fang and Lightning took the two nearest seats.

"Damn Snow, you look like hammered shit." Fang said to the large man who cringed when she spoke.

"Shut up Fang, this is all your fault anyway." Snow replied, putting his head in his hands and bending over in his chair.

"I told ya to go slow, but you didn't listen." Fang said, smiling despite the pain in her head.

"I'm gonna go throw up." Snow said and walked out the door. The rest of the group heard sounds confirming what he had just said. When he returned he looked even worse than when he left.

"How about some food? I'm starving." Vanille said getting up. A unanimous yet barely coherent agreement was heard from the hung-over section of the building. They walked to yet another building with a kitchen and a large pot for stews and soups, apparently for the whole village based on the size. Vanille prepared some food while everyone else waited. After they ate the entire group felt much better, though Fang and Snow were both still down. Lightning however felt almost back to her normal self.

Most of the day was spent recovering, be it from the hang overs, the stress, the near constant travel, or the seemingly endless series of battles they had been through. No one had been willing to give up, but they had all been worn almost completely out. The endless days of fighting and running, the short nights, shortened even more by guard duty. The only one who got any real work done was Hope, who had finished fixing Bhakti, earning him an excited hug from Vanille that turned him red. Other than that not much got done, though everyone felt much better for it.

Lightning looked around the empty village as the sun began to set. The place truly was a ghost town, with everyone inside there wasn't a thing moving. Well, almost everyone was inside. Lightning walked over and sat down on the sand beside Fang, stretching her legs out in front of her. They sat in silence for a few minutes and watched the sunset. Fang was the first to speak.

"Wish you could have seen it before. It used to be wonderful." She said, still looking at the horizon.

"The sunset?" Lightning asked, not understanding how it could be any different.

"No, the village." Fang said, not bothering to look at it when she spoke, "It used to be busy. It was small, sure, but it always had people. Hunters would bring in their kills, foresters would bring in the best herbs and spices, the cooks would make enough food to literally feed a village; always the best food too, no one was better. And everyone was your friend, hell everyone was family. You never had to worry about people taking your stuff cuz most of it belonged to everyone anyway, and when somethin' was yours people respected that and left it alone. People slept wherever they wanted and didn't worry about what might happen, cuz everyone else had your back."

Lightning watched and listened as the woman reminisced about her village. It truly saddened her that it was her own world that had done this, that she was somehow responsible, even if she hadn't been born yet. Maybe that was why Fang and Vanille were helping them now, not just because of a brand, but because they knew what it was like to fight to save your home

"I'm sorry." Lightning said, surprising Fang who knew it was not something she said often, "It's not right, what happened to you and Vanille. I know we can't bring it back to what it was before, but maybe, when all this is over, we can rebuild it, make it a new place. I'm sure not everyone will want to stay on Cocoon, especially after the purge."

" 'We' can rebuild it?" Fang inquired.

"You know what I mean." Lightning said.

"Yeah, I know. And it sounds good to me." Fang said.

"Well," Lightning said, standing up, "we should get inside with the others, we're not going to be taking tomorrow off too."

"Whatever ya say, Sunshine." Fang said as she too stood up.

They walked back to the buildings and met up with the others inside. It wasn't long before everyone elected to go to sleep, knowing they were going to be busy training the next day. They also wanted to make sure they could get as much sleep in a bed as possible, since they didn't know how long they would be sleeping on the ground again.

….

Fang threw another volley of ruin at the cie'th they were fighting; the damn thing was starting to piss her off. The cie'th in question was flying just out of their range for the whole fight, it was the reason she hated fighting things that could fly. She wasn't very good with magic either, so her long range attacks weren't near as effective as she wanted them to be. The thing was almost done though, mostly due to Lightning and Hope's ravager roles, the other three had chosen to sit this one out unless they were needed. If she could just get close enough this thing would done for, but it flew out of the way every time she tried to jump at it. Sunshine had been the only one who could land a blow on it.

Lightning seen Hope's magic hit the cie'th with precision and power. Lightning wasn't waiting any longer to take this thing down. She glanced over at Fang and met her eyes. She backed up quickly, and then ran at the huntress from behind her. Fang dropped to her knees and held her spear out in front and above her head. Lightning put one foot on Fang's shoulder, then the other on the spear, and jumped into the air holding her gunblade in reverse position. She collided mid-air with the cie'th, her sword going through its torso. She landed on the ground with her sword still through the creature, she pulled it out and dismounted with a backflip that went higher than should be possible. As she did this Fang ducked under her, spun her spear around and brought it down on the cie'ths neck.

Fang stepped back from the dead cie'th, expecting it to disappear like all the others, it didn't. Instead it flew into the air, flew away from them, and circled one spot at high speed. When it finished, the cie'th was gone and there was a large crystal sphere in its place. The party looked at Fang and Vanille for answers, but they simply shrugged; how the hell where they supposed to know what just happened? Either way, they had slain another target for the cie'th stones; another mission was done. Not that there weren't many others to be completed, but this one was over. Maybe their next one wouldn't be so annoying.

"I'm glad that one's over." Fang said as they began their walk away.

"What for?" Vanille asked even though she already knew the answer.

"I hate those damn fliers; I can't ever get close enough to `em." Fang said.

"That's why I carry these." Sazh said, patting his pistols.

"Really? I thought it was cuz ya were too old to use a real weapon." Fang said, grinning at the older man.

"Real weapon? These things are as real as I need them to be." Sazh returned, ignoring the crack at his age.

"You two arguin' about weapons?" Snow asked, getting in on the conversation, "I got all the weapons I need right here." At this he flexed his biceps, showing off as they walked.

"And a lot a good they did us against that damn flyin' asshole back there." Fang said

"You looked like you took care of it pretty well on your own." Snow said

"Yeah, he wasn't exactly numero uno on the tough guy list, in fact he was worse than your cookin'; I just hate it when they won't let me hit them." Fang said

"I guess I can agree with that…Hey, wait a second, I can cook." Snow said, having a delayed reaction to the insult.

"I ain't seen ya do it before." Fang replied quickly.

They continued to poke jabs at each other until return to camp, at which point everyone started to calm down. They fell into their usual routine of winding down. One by one they all went to sleep; the only exception being Lightning, who was taking first watch, as usual. The night was quiet, like most others.

….

Lightning kept a sharp eye out as they approached the supposed location of their next target. It was supposed to be around here somewhere, but she couldn't see it. Everyone else appeared to be on edge too. Why wasn't it anywhere nearby?

"What's this one called again?" Fang asked for the third time; she never could remember the names of their targets, but she sure could kill them.

"Zenobia." Lightning answered.

"Okay, so where is it?" Fang asked.

"It should be right here." Lightning answered, stopping for a moment.

All of a sudden tentacles burst out of the ground in front of them. A cie'th climbed its way out from under the ground, standing over them with the tentacles where its arms should be. The team was immediately on alert, weapons ready and positions taken.

"Well this one looks like fun." Fang said, grinning at the imposing cie'th before them.

As if out of nowhere a small green tonberry appeared and walked up to Zenobia from behind. The six watched as the small green creature walked up to the beast and easily stabbed it in the ankle with its small knife. The cie'th collapsed on the ground and died as one of the undying. Then the tonberry turned and looked at the group. Who wore blank expressions, not sure what they had just witnessed.

"Well that was odd." Hope said

"Yeah, I wouln't have thought-OH SHIT!" Fang said as suddenly the tonberry attacked them.

Lightning jumped over the tonberry and began attacking it from behind with her gunblade, but its skin was thick and resilient. Seeing this Fang took up the sabatour role and began working to drop its defenses. Hope threw spell after spell at the small green creature, but like they only did so much. Eventually Fang managed to lower its defenses to magic and physical attacks, but not before it did some damage to all of them. Fang began helping Lightning with the attack while Hope continued with his magical bombardment. Lightning was glad the other three where smart enough to stay back, it was awkward enough trying to fight such a small creature with just the three of them. Despite this they soon managed to get its health down at a pretty substantial rate. They backed off for a moment to regroup their efforts. Lightning noticed it began charging an attack, this was bad she knew.

"Fang now!" Lightning said, knowing what would happen if it managed to attack.

"On it, Sunshine." Fang said and charged the tonberry by Lightning's side. They redoubled their efforts, Lightning's blade flashing at surprising speeds and Fang's spear landing with a force. Fang landed the final blow just in time; her spear coming up vertically and knocking the small but sturdy creature dead on its back.

"That was tough." Hope said simply.

"Damn little green bastard, never did like those things." Fang said while turning back to the group.

"At least they don't fly, right?" Snow asked at the huntress.

"Oh damn, I don't think I'd ever stop hitting it. Damn tonberries tryin' to go all grudge on me. And those stupid flyin' sons o' bitches not lettin' me hit em." Fang grumbled.

"I think I upset Fang." Snow said.

"Ya think?" Sazh said to Snow while Fang continued to complain about the annoying creatures she didn't enjoy fighting.

Lightning smirked at the huntress' annoyance for all the small creatures, because they all happened to be just that, but the only one who happened to see this was Vanille.

"Hey, Fang. Vanille." Lightning said, getting everyone's attention in the process, not just the two women.

"Yeah Sunshine." Fang responded.

"What is that thing anyway?" Lightning said, nodding her head in the direction of the moving mountain, "You said it was called Titan?"

"Yep, that's Titan. Why you bringing it up?" Fang asked.

"You mentioned Titan's Trials, correct?" Lightning asked, making it obvious where she was going with this.

"Are you thinkin' what I think you're thinkin', Sunshine?" Fang asked.

"Yes. Tomorrow we start Titan's Trials." Lightning said.

_**a/n: As you can see the transition is to Titan's Trials. Hoping to put some more fighting into the story. Considered making this one longer, but decided to make the Trials separate. Please review and i'll try to have the next chapter up as soon as** **possible. **_


	6. Chapter 6

**_Next chapter is up, hopefully improved from the last, I'm always trying to get better. Put another action sequence in, my fave to write so far. as always i hope you enjoy._**

Chapter 6

"Well that was easy." Fang said as she stretched, "I'd have thought Titan'd give us a real challenge."

They had just finished their second battle in Titan's trials. Two stones leading to their next trial had appeared before them, a choice for the next battle. Lightning approached the first stone and activated it to see what choice they had for their next target.

"An Ochu? Works for me." Fang said, seeing the target.

Lightning activated the Ochu stone and they were sent directly to it. The fight went well, with Lightning and Sazh taking up the role of ravager, occasionally switching to commando to deal with the annoyance of the mirochu. Fang took on a commando role, focusing most of her attention on the Ochu. There weren't any fancy moves performed this time, mostly because Fang was taking out the Ochu, dealing blow after blow. Despite its best efforts the Ochu fell in record time.

"So, what's next Sunshine?" Fang asked

"Borgbear Hero." Lightning said simply.

"Sounds like fun." Fang said.

"I wanna help with this one; I'm bored with just sitting there." Vanille said to Fang.

"Works for me." Sazh said, "I could use a break any, I'm gettin' too old to keep this up."

"Yay." Vanille said, and ran up to stand beside the other two women as Lightning activated the cie'th stone.

The battle was one even quicker than the last. Vanille fell into a sabatour role immediately, with Fang and Lightning working as commandos. With their enemies weakened Fang and Lightning were able to tear through them all with ease. Fang straightened up as the beast fell, not even bothering to stretch out.

"Damn, that was easy. What's with these things? Titan needs to give us a challenge." Fang said, complaining to the whole of the group.

"Careful what you wish for Fang." Vanille said, sounding cautious, but smiling nonetheless.

"And why should I be?" Fang asked.

"Because you tend to get it." Lightning said standing by one of the stones.

"And why would you say that, Sunshine?" Fang said

"Raktavaja." Lightning said.

"Damn, that's just playin' dirty. Stickin one a those at the end." Fang said

"You want to sit this one out? You've fought hard so far." Lightning asked Fang

"Ya kiddin'? If you can keep goin', so can I. We'll drop this thing." Fang said

"Fine." Lightning said, "Vanille, sit down. Hope, you're up." Both Vanille and Hope were good with magical attacks as well as healing, but Hope was a synergist, which would be more useful in this battle than Vanille's sabatour magic.

"Um, me? Sure." Hope said, standing up from where he was resting.

Lightning activated the stone and they found themselves with a hovering Cie'th before them. They charged the beast, but were spotted before they could attack, removing their element of surprise. Fang and Lightning began attacking the cie'th just as it raised its magical barrier, taking on commando and ravager roles respectively. Hope immediately started putting buffs on the team, starting with haste, then veil followed by shell. He continued applying advantages until Lightning gave the command to change. He went into a medic role for a moment to heal some minor injuries to them all, before switching to a ravager role to help try and knock the cie'th of balance.

Lightning swung her blade at the shield a few more times before stepping back for a moment, then attacked again imbuing her blade with many different elements, hoping one would break through the magical barrier protecting their target. After a flurry of blows she took a few quick steps back to regroup. Just as Lightning was about to return to her assault Fang struck a solid blow in conjunction with Hope's magic and the barrier fell. Lightning jumped at the chance, literally. She leaped into the air at the cie'th, doing a summersault in midair so that she landed both feet solidly on the creature while activating a small device on her finger with a snap. The altered gravity sent the two flying backwards as if she had landed on it from above until they collided with a cliff face behind them. As they did so Lightning dropped to one knee on top(sort of) of the cie'th, driving her blade through it. She dismounted the creature and landed just feet away with her gravcom unit deactivated.

Just as Lightning landed Fang rushed forward, striking the raktavaja once to send the disoriented beast flying into the air where it was met by some well-timed spells sent by Hope. Lightning jumped into the air not far behind the cie'th; she appeared weightless as she hung in midair long enough to deal several blows to the stunned beast. Fang was not far behind, also dealing as much damage as possible to the dazed creature. Lightning finally fell back to the ground. As she landed she immediately looked up to see Fang strike her prey hard, sending it downward at an accelerated pace. Lightning was ready for this; her blade arced in an uppercut as it met the falling beast, causing it to flip over itself like a coin a few times before disappearing in black smoke, which Fang landed in giving her a very dramatic look as she stood up with the swirling smoke dissipating around her.

"Please tell me I'm not the only one who seen that." Hope said a few moments after the battle ended.

"I saw it to." Vanille said as she joined the battle team, "Fang was all dramatic and smoky and all 'Yeah, I'm just that cool'." Finishing the sentence by taking up a pose similar to Fang's when she finished the battle.

"It wasn't **that** cool." Snow said, causing everyone with the exception of Lightning to look at him. Feeling everyone's eyes on him at once, Snow conceded "Okay, it was."

"Damn, you guys are makin' me wish I'd seen it from the outside." Fang said welcoming the praise, even though she was surprised by it since her grand finale had happened completely on accident. "What about you, Sunshine? You think I was dramatic and entertaining?" Fang called to Lightning, who was standing a little ways away from the group.

"It was overdramatic and showing off." Lightning said turning her head slightly, but not completely as she spoke.

"Since its Sunshine, I'll take that as a compliment." Fang said

"You better." Snow said, "Trying to get Lightning to actually give a compliment is like trying to get her to give you her gunblade, it just ain't gonna happen."

"Ain't gonna stop me from tryin though, I like a challenge." Fang said.

"You said that before," Sazh said, " and you ended up fightin' a rakta-, rackta-, rockta-, one a those things." Sazh waved his hand in the general direction of the battlefield as he gave up on trying to pronounce the creature's name.

"Doesn't stop it from bein true." Fang said, "So, what's next anyway?"

"It's getting late; we need to find somewhere to set up camp for the night." Lightning said, answering Fang's question, "There was a forested area not far from here that we can set up in, but we should get going now."

"Alright everyone, you heard the lady, move out." Sazh said, compelling everyone to follow as Lightning suddenly turned and started walking away.

They found a small area in a fairly well hidden section that they used as camp, though they did have to remove a tree from the center. They used it as firewood and seats, so it proved beneficial overall. After a few hours of rest to allow their minds to calm down from the events of the day, Lightning finally declared it time to sleep, not that anyone in the group was about to argue with her on the matter. She was to take first watch, followed by Fang, then Snow.

The night was slow, as it always was on Gran Pulse, with no real signs of danger despite the constant presence of monsters. The fire was barely such anymore, mostly having burnt down to glowing embers. Lightning looked to the sky, observing the stars above them, a habit she had developed since their time on Pulse; they didn't have stars on Cocoon. It was getting late, almost time for Fang's shift, though she considered simply letting her sleep. It wasn't like she was going to sleep anyway, that last battle had gotten her blood to pumping and she hadn't had a chance to expel her excess energy since the battle was so short. _Then again, _she thought looking at Fang_, waking her up may be just the way to get rid of all this extra energy_. She knew Fang would like that idea but turned it down anyway; Fang could get noisy sometimes and she didn't want to risk waking everyone else.

Lightning stood up, she wasn't going to be able to relax here so she would try somewhere else. She walked over to where Fang and Vanille were sleeping and put her hand on Fang's shoulder, gently shaking her awake.

"That time already?" Fang asked, rubbing her eyes.

"Yeah." Lightning said, "You keep watch, I'm going for a walk. I need to clear my head."

"Sure ya don't want me to clear it for ya?" Fang said with a wry grin as she sat up and stretched her muscles.

"No, I got it covered." Lightning said, standing up. Fang followed momentarily and then proceeded to pop her back. Lightning started to walk away when Fang spoke again.

"Hey Sunshine." Fang said

"Yeah." Lightning said, turning around to look at Fang. But when she did she was startled as Fang was right against her, kissing her. Fang's hand was on the back of Lightning's neck, the other on the small of Lightning's back. Though surprised at first, Lightning quickly recovered and returned the kiss, her hands resting on Fang's hips.

"What was that?" Lightning asked as Fang broke the kiss and stepped back.

"Well I needed somethin' to keep me awake now didn't I?" Fang returned, "Well go on now; I've got it covered here." Fang made shooing motion with her hands as she sent Lightning away.

"Fine, just don't do that again, not where we can be seen." Lightning said before turning and walking away; not even bothering to look back at the woman who watched her leave.

Lightning walked deeper into the wooded area until she found a section clear enough for her purpose; then began trying to think of ways to relieve her pent up frustrations. Exercise was always an option, but she didn't want to overexert herself and suffer for it in tomorrow's battles. There weren't any large bodies of water around that she knew of, so a cold bath was out of the question. Her mind jumped back to Fang and she shook her head to clear it. Fang was back at camp, besides those are the thoughts she is trying to get rid of. She decided to try meditation; she had done so many times back on Cocoon to calm herself after a hard day, so it seemed logical to assume it would work here as well.

Lightning began to get relaxed, as that would obviously make the process easier. She began by removing her boots, then her socks. She took off her gunblade, holster and all, yet kept it nearby, just in case. She undid the belt around her chest and removed it along with her vest. Lightning sat down cross legged in the grass, her gunblade next to her, her excess clothing neatly placed a few feet away. Her back was straight, her shoulders even yet relaxed, or as relaxed as she could be. She began slowly, focusing on her breathing, in and out, inhale and exhale, fill your lungs and empty them. Despite having done this many times before, Lightning found her efforts failing; instead of calming her mind began to wander. She thought of the trials they had faced today, and what they may face in the next. She tried again to focus on her breathing. She thought of the battles they had done, flowing through combat slicing at everything in her way. Breath in, breath out, she thought, trying to focus on her breathing despite her restless mind. Her mind went to Fang, thinking of how the woman fought by her side, wielding her spear with power and precision. Fang was in her head now, and Fang was probably the only thing that could get into her head and stay there. Despite her best efforts the pulsian huntress remained in her mind, her train of thought taking her exactly in the direction she had been trying to avoid. She thought of Fang's movements, then how she felt, then how Fang had kissed her just before she had left the camp. Lightning shook her head; meditation wasn't going to work, she needed action, and based on where her mind was at the moment, she knew exactly what action she needed to take.

"Damn it." Lightning said as she adjusted her position and removed her skirt and the shorts she wore beneath, leaving her with only her panties covering her bottom half. This wasn't an action she took often, in fact she had only done so on a few select occasions before when she had been unable to find an alternate solution, much like now. She didn't particularly dislike the act itself, she felt no shame for such a common action, but she felt it exhibited a lack of self-control, and self-control was something she determined to master. But that was something she would focus on later.

Lightning spread her legs out in front of her and leaned back, putting one on the ground behind her to steady herself. Her other hand moved across the thin fabric of her underwear as her thoughts went to the woman who was the cause of her current course of action. Only Fang could get her going like this, and she did it without even trying. Lightning pushed her underwear to the side as they started to get wet and her middle finger into herself to start. Her breathing was heavier and her heart rate was already increasing. Her hand moved back and forth, sliding her finger in knuckle deep before pulling almost completely out. As she adjusted to just one Lightning added another finger, by now her breathing was audible and she knew that it would only be a few more minutes before she reached her peak.

"Yes, Fang." Lightning breathed out, the words slipping from her as she thought of the huntress.

"You called?" a voice said from nowhere.

Lightning stopped moving. Her ears listening for any sign of the voice she had heard, her eyes darted around, but she dared not move her head. Her fingers were still halfway inside her, but her hand didn't even twitch.

"Well don't stop now, I was enjoyin' the view." The voice said from behind Lightning. The soldier recognized the voice this time and relaxed a little. She was still shaken by being caught in such a compromising position, but didn't want to show it.

"How many times have I told you not to stare?" Lightning said, still not moving.

"Like I could help it, you were really puttin on a show there." Fang said.

"Doesn't mean I want to be watched." Lightning said then started to stand.

"Oh no you don't." Fang said walking over to Lightning and putting a hand on her shoulder to stop the soldier from getting up.

"Fang, what are you doing?" Lightning asked as the taller woman sat down behind her stretching her legs out on either side of Lightning's, her tan skin a striking contrast to Lightning's pale complexion. Fang wrapped an arm around Lightning's stomach and leaned forward slightly as she began kissing the soldier's neck.

"Try and relax a little Sunshine, you're all tense." Fang said into Lightning's ear, then began kissing her neck and ear again, nibbling on the pinkette's earlobe. After a few moments Lightning took a deep breath and relaxed, resting against the pulsian woman behind her. Lightning brought her hand up and grabbed the back of Fang's neck as the woman was kissing her and turned her head to so her lips met the older woman's, her arm held Fang's head tightly in place for the kiss, not that she was resisting. Finally they broke the kiss, leaving them both out of breath, Lightning more so than Fang. Lightning went to turn around to face Fang but was stopped.

"Not this time, this time you're all mine." Fang said. Lightning submitted, knowing she wouldn't win this one. Fang moved her free hand slowly down Lightning's body, all the way down to her knee, then, even more slowly, brought it up the inside of her leg. She ran her hand over Lightning's exposed and still wet center, a sharp intake of breath from the soldier told her the woman was already worked up, though she had already known that. She slowly slipped one finger inside the small woman, taking her time to get her entire finger within the woman's core. Lightning began to squirm just a little underneath the pulsian woman's grasp, held tight in place by Fang's strong arm around her stomach. Slowly, even more so than she entered the woman, Fang withdrew her finger almost entirely from Lightning, causing the soldier to tense and squirm even more. Fang then gave up on teasing the soldier and picked up her pace, she then added a second finger after a time, and returned to kissing Lightning's neck as she did so. She alternated her pace between slow and fast to keep her lover off balance and felt Lightning's nails digging hard into the back of her neck and to her wrist were Lightning had her hand over the one around her waist. Fang added a third finger to the process and Lightning's already heavy panting increased.

Lightning let out a small moan in Fang's ear and the huntress grinned as she kissed the soldier's neck. This was the first time Lightning had truly given in to her. Their first time together Lightning had fought her and after that Lightning had dominated her. Although Fang enjoyed having Lightning take her, after all who wouldn't, she still liked to be in charge sometimes.

Lightning's nails dug into Fang's skin nearly drawing blood from her arms, and succeeding in doing so from the back of her neck, if only barely. Fang knew the soldier was close, she could feel it. The huntress redoubled her efforts, grinding her palm into the soldier's core as she worked her fingers in a multitude of different patterns. Fang felt it when Lightning reached her climax. Every muscle in the smaller woman's body tensed, her mouth held open in a silent scream that her lungs would not let out. Fang rode out the orgasm even as Lightning clamped down on her fingers, nearly bringing the woman to a second, though as Lightning calmed, so did Fang. Fang removed her fingers as Lightning's breathing returned to normal. She brought her hand, which was covered in Lightning's juices, to her mouth, sucking each finger clean, enjoying the taste of the pinkette in her arms. She leaned in and kissed the soldier one more time, Lightning brought a hand to Fang's face as they did. After they broke the kiss Fang went to stand up and remove herself from being wrapped around the woman, but was stopped when Lightning grabbed her by the arm still around her waist.

"Wait." Lightning said, almost in a whisper, "Don't go, not just yet."

"Don't worry, I'm right here." Fang responded, surprised by Lightning's apparently sudden want to be close, but not opposed to the idea. She wrapped her second arm around the soldier's waist and felt both of Lightning's arms rest on top of her own as she held the woman close against her. Neither one knew how long they stayed that way but, for Fang at least, forever would have been too short. They did have to return to camp though so, eventually, Lightning got dressed and they returned to find Snow still on watch. They waylaid his worries about the length of time they were gone by saying Fang had found Lightning meditating and waited for her to finish so they would return together, and then adjoined to their separate beds, Lightning on her own and Fang with Vanille, as he kept watch. Both women slept well, though neither as well as they would have, had they been together.

**_Hope you enjoyed the chapter, been trying to improve and make them longer for all you fans. As always please leave reviews, a good review is always a reason to work faster, and somehow enables me to do so, so fuel the mind and be__ rewarded._**


	7. Chapter 7

_**Finally got this one done, Hope you enjoy it. And i still do not on ffxiii, but i wish i did.**_

Chapter 7

Lightning sat on a small rock in their current camp, located beneath a group of trees, with her eyes closed and her gunblade across her lap, listening to the rain as it fell. She finally opened her eyes and looked around the camp. Hope and Vanille were sitting on a log from the tree they had taken down, both for fire wood and to clear a spot to stay. Sazh and Fang were each sitting on slightly smaller upturned blocks, and Snow was sitting on the stump. The fire in the center of the camp kept away the humidity, as well as the approaching chill that was beginning to set in. The cold wasn't quite enough to bother them yet, but had definitely become noticeable.

As she looked around she knew that the rest of the group was enjoying the temporary respite that the rain had given them from the constant monotony of fighting. It had been difficult recently due to their working their way through Titan's trials. Though they had come out victorious in each and every battle so far, as she had expected, that wasn't to say some of them weren't hard fought. Lightning herself had wanted to continue their battles in the Faultwarrens, but had been unanimously outvoted. She had been surprised that Fang, the ever ready fighter, had been the one to put a halt to her plans. Lightning knew that unless one of the members of the group spoke up that they would all follow her through whatever she chose to do, even if they didn't particularly agree. However if one of them did choose to speak their mind then the others who disagreed with her would have no problem backing them up, as had been the case here. So now she was sitting here, her progress impeded by nothing more than a heavy rainfall.

Lightning stood up suddenly, transforming and sheathing her gunblade in one motion as she did so. The action brought the attention of the entire group to her. "I'm going for a walk." She said, not wanting all the attention. Her statement, however, had the opposite effect.

"Wait, what?" Snow blurted out, surprise evident on his face, "What do you mean you're going for a walk? It's pouring out there." Lightning was about to respond, but Snow wasn't the only with objections, Sazh also joined in.

"He's right ya know; you'll get drenched if you go out there." He said, trying a calmer approach to the same line of thought.

"I can see that it's raining, I just don't care." Lightning said with an edge in her voice. She was already bothered by having to sit and do nothing; she didn't need them telling her what she already knew.

"Something wrong, Sunshine?" Fang asked, already knowing from Lightning's tone that something was.

"I'm fine, I'll be back soon." Lightning said.

"Where are you going?" Hope asked nervously, not wanting to get Lightning mad at him too.

"I don't know." Lightning said, walking to the edge of the camp so that the wall of water was less than a foot from her.

"Well when'll ya be back?" Fang asked.

"When I'm done." Lightning said. With that she took a large step out of the camp and into the pouring rain, cutting off any questions the others may have been about to ask. The water hit her like a wall, but she didn't let it show, instead she kept walking, falling into a steady pace. The water washed over, chilling her to the bone, but she ignored it, focusing on keeping her pace instead. She put everything out of her mind but the walk; just keep putting one foot in front of the other.

The rain drowned out everything as she pushed forward. All sounds, smells, and even thoughts were gone. Lightning could see the many different terraquatics as she walked, but never heard any of them over the downpour. She wasn't sure how long she walked like that, with her mind wiped by the wash of water. When she finally came to a stop she found herself at the edge of a precipice that dropped off so far she couldn't even see the bottom. Ahead of her there was a break in the clouds just large enough to let through a small amount of sunlight. As the light travelled down in front of her it was broken up by the many droplets of water that fell, each one acting as its own individual prism sending hundreds of thousands of multicolored beams of light over the cliff faces on either side, as well as down into the darkness below. It was only a few seconds before the clouds closed up again, cutting off the light and halting the spectacle, but it still left Lightning breathless. She stood there for a little while, letting her mind ponder the strange wonder she had just seen. Despite all the grey and dark that there was at the moment, one ray of light had been able to create such a seen, but without the light there was only darkness and depression. She wondered if it meant something, but then quickly dismissed the idea as fantasy; it had been a work of nature, that was all. It was a moment of beauty due to the light, and the rain. It was also, however, something she would never have seen on Cocoon. That was something more to think about.

As her mind began to wander from the sight and she thought she should be returning to the camp and the fire, even if she was just going to sit there, Lightning heard something over the rain that caused her to turn around. She spotted Fang walking towards her.

"Well there you are, thought I'd never find ya in this." Fang said as she walked up to the soldier, having to stand right next to the soldier in order to be heard without having to raise her voice.

"What are you doing here Fang?" Lightning asked, surprised to see the woman, and just a little upset with her for being the reason they had to sit out in the first place.

"You been gone a while, we was startin' to get worried bout ya." She said with a bit of smile, Lightning figured Fang probably wasn't the one most worried.

"I'm a big girl, Fang. I can handle myself." Lightning said.

"I know that, hell ya can handle yourself and me too sometimes," Fang's grin widened as she said this, "but I still thought I should come look for ya, just in case."

"Thanks for thought, but you didn't need to come out here, I'm just fine." Lightning said, more annoyed than comforted by the fact that Fang came to check on her.

"I don't think ya are." Fang said, prompting a sudden look of surprise from Lightning, "I think somethin' is eatin' at ya and that's why you came traipsin out here in the rain."

Lightning shot a glare at Fang, though the effect was somewhat mitigated by her soaked hair clinging to her face. "I said I'm fine, so just drop it." She said. She turned her back on the taller woman and hunched her shoulders. Fang, however, wasn't going to have any of that, and grabbed the soldier by the arm and spun her around.

"I don't think so, Hun. Now there's somethin botherin ya and I ain't goin nowhere till you tell me what it is. So just spill it now that way we can get back to camp and dry off." Fang said, her face serious. Lightning held out for a moment before she caved, she just couldn't say no to Fang.

"I don't like it. Just sitting there, doing nothing while Dysley, or Barthandalus, whoever he is, is trying to destroy Cocoon. All the while knowing that every second gets me one step closer to being a cie'th. That I won't be able to do a thing to save Serah and the only thing left of me will be some monster wandering around waiting for someone to kill me." Lightning took a deep breath as she finished in an attempt to calm herself. She looked at Fang, who waited a moment to make sure she was finished before speaking.

"Look, I get it. Ya don't like feelin like you're not doin anything. It makes sense, but ya gotta remember that ya need to take a break every once in a while. You're strong, but ya ain't invincible, and if you don't take time to rest, you'll wear yourself out. And as for you bein a cie'th, well that just ain't gonna happen, I won't let it." Fang put her hand on Lightning's shoulder and looked her in the eyes as she said this last part, then smiled as she finished speaking.

Lightning moved her hand to rest on top of Fang's on her own shoulder. She looks away for a moment, and then turned back and looked at Fang before speaking again. "Thank you." Was all she said.

"Of course," Fang said, "You gotta remember, you're not in this alone, ya got people who care about ya. Don't go lettin all that build up."

"You got it." Lightning said, then straightened up moving her hand back down, Fang followed suit.

"Now what do ya say we get back to camp before you freeze off that nice little ass of yours?" Fang asked.

"Did you just compliment my ass?" Lightning asked as she started back towards camp.

"You bet I did." Fang said with small chuckle, following Lightning back towards the camp.

…...

No one said a word as Lightning and Fang returned to the campsite. Lightning was glad that they chose to ignore her little outburst of storming off. The two women sat down close to the fire to warm up and begin drying off. It was quiet for what felt like a long time, as nobody wanted to say the wrong thing; all but Fang still believed Lightning to be upset over something that they didn't know about. It was Lightning herself who finally broke the silence.

"How long does it rain like this on Pulse?" She asked, turning to Fang who was still drying off beside her.

"Hard to say," Fang said as she looked up at the clouded sky, "Some last for hours, other times I've seen it last for a few days."

"A few days?" Lightning inquired, wondering if she could handle doing nothing for that long. Fang could see the soldier obviously didn't like the idea of more than a couple days of rain.

"It prob'ly won't last that long." Fang said, hoping to keep Lightning from worrying and going off into the rain again, "But if it does, we can always start trainin right here."

"Hopefully it stops raining before that." Snow said, "I don't think I want to have to face off against Light."

"Of course you wouldn't, you dropped like a sack of potatoes last time she hit ya." Sazh said

"Really? Little ol' Sunshine here managed to deck ya?" Fang said, grinning at Snow.

"You wouldn't be mockin me if she had hit you." Snow said, trying to salvage some pride.

"I have." Lightning said, not even bothering to look towards the conversation.

"You hit Fang?" Snow asked, surprised.

"Yeah, in Palumpolum right after she left the kid with you." Fang said, answering Snow's question for Lightning, "I told her that me and Vanille wakin' up was what caused Serah to be a l'cie, which I thought was true, and she hit me right across the jaw. It hurt too."

"Of course it hurt. Why were you surprised?"

"Well I didn't expect her pack such a punch. For someone so small she got a mean backhand." Fang said, looking at the soldier who was ignoring the conversation, then back at Snow, "But at least I managed to stay standin'."

"All you got was a backhand? She drew back and landed a full right hook on me. Twice." Snow said, rubbing his jaw as he remembered.

"I suppose that would make ya a little gun shy when she draws back, now wouldn't it?"

"You got that right." Snow responded with a grin before the conversation fell quiet again. The day continued on with heavy rain, and mostly small talk to kill the boredom. After a few more hours they, mostly Lightning, decided that sleeping would be the best idea. After a few minutes it was decided Fang would take first watch, followed by Lightning, and then Snow would take last watch. Hopefully the rain would have stopped by the time they woke up.

….

Lightning walked in the rain towards the figure in front of her. A person simply standing in the rain. As she moved towards them she began to see more clearly; small frame, familiar build, and most importantly, pink hair. Serah was standing in the middle of the plains, her back to Lightning. The rain crashed down between them as Lightning ran towards her sister, but she didn't seem to be moving near fast enough. She called out to Serah as she ran forward, but her words were lost in the wind. She was drawing closer, but it seemed as if the closer she got, the slower time went. As she pushed her way forward Serah turned around and smiled at her. Lightning shouted again, but even she could barely hear her own words. Then Serah spoke, her voice, calm and even, rang clearly in Lightning's ears, "Why didn't you save me?" Lightning pushed harder, trying to get past the invisible force that slowed her. "You could have saved me, Claire. Why did you leave me?"

She was nearly to Serah now, though it felt like she was walking through oil or honey, everything holding her back. Lightning reached out an arm; her fingers were just inches from Serah. Suddenly there was a flash of blue light and Serah stood before her as a crystal, a smile still evident on her face. Lightning touched the crystal statue, hoping to reach Serah, but instead she heard Serah's voice. "You're too late, Lightning. You should have saved me when you had the chance." Serah's crystal began to disintegrate in Lightning's hand, turning to dust that flowed through the soldiers fingers, even as she tried to hold on to it, but Serah's voice continued to berate her. "It's all your fault, Claire. You should have helped me, you should have trusted me. Why didn't you believe me, Claire? Why didn't you save me?"

Lightning shrank into a ball, putting her head between her knees to drown out the sound of her sister's voice. "No." She said to herself repeatedly, "No, It's not my fault, it's not." But her voice was muted in the wind, even as Serah's came through clearly to condemn her for what she had done, and failed to do. "You left me here. You abandoned me to go to Pulse. Why did you leave me?"

There was nothing but darkness now, no rain, no wind, just darkness; yet Serah's voice continued to ask questions she didn't have answers for, things she didn't want to think about. Lightning heard something else in the darkness too, something small, or far away. "Light." The voice said, but it was weak and distant, it couldn't help her now. "Lightning." The voice called her, but Serah's was louder, there was no use in paying attention. She was alone with her regret and sorrow, Serah was right, no one could help her.

"Sunshine." The voice said, and Lightning's head snapped up. Only Fang called her that. She heard it again, clearer this time, "Sunshine." Fang was here, with her. Lightning could still hear Serah's voice, assaulting her, telling her she was wrong and alone; but now that voice was distant. Fang was here, everything would be fine if Fang was here. She was still in the darkness, but it wasn't as powerful as before.

"Sunshine." Lightning heard it, and felt it as Fang shook her. The soldier sat bolt upright all of a sudden, cold sweat covering her entire body. She was panting, bordering on hyperventilating. She didn't know where she was, but she was scared. Fear and panic ran through her, her mind unable to settle on a reason why. "Ya'll right?" she heard, and turned towards the sound. Her eyes met a pair of green ones, and she threw her arms around the person, holding on tight to make sure they were real.

"Wow, there." Fang said as Lightning threw her arms around her, "It's okay, I got ya." She wrapped an arm around the panicked woman to calm her down. Fang was surprised by the soldier's actions, Lightning never did anything like this, and was not one to be easily scared either "You okay?" She asked again as Lightning's breathing began to level out.

"Bad dream." Was all she gave in response.

"Must've been a pretty bad one." Fang said, stroking her hand up and down Lightning's back to comfort her. She felt the soldier nod in response. "It's all right now, it wasn't real." Lightning closed her eyes and relaxed slightly, but didn't let go. Fang returned the woman's hold, both arms wrapped tightly around her.

After a few moments Lightning loosened her grip and leaned back, Fang let her go as she did this. "I'm sorry I panicked like that." She said, looking away as she spoke.

"It's all right. We've all been there." Fang said, "Ya wanna tell me bout it?"

"No, I'll be fine." Lightning said, then after a moment added, "And thank you."

"Like I said, I'm here for ya. Now you go back to sleep an I'll cover your watch."

"No, I can take over from here."

"Ya sure, cause I can stay up."

"No, I'm sure. Besides, I won't be sleeping well now anyway."

"All right, I'll hit the sack. You just remember to wake up Snow for his turn and get yourself some shut eye."

"I will Fang, now shut up and go to sleep before you wake everyone up."

"All right, all right. I'll see ya in the mornin' Sunshine."

"Yeah."

Lightning took a seat and did her best to relax. She watched Fang sleep for a moment and started thinking. She had had nightmares before. After her parents death they were common, that was part of the reason she had taken up her new name. She had even had a few since Serah's crystallization. This, however, had been the first time someone had been there for her. She had never allowed Serah to see her scared after their parent's death, and she hadn't had anyone since she became a L'cie. But now she had woken up in fear and panic, and Fang had been there for her. She wasn't even sure how she felt about that, she had never been good with emotions, but it was definitely better than when she had to wake up alone. Much better.

….

Fang was hunched down, focused on the battle. She moved in a circle, counterclockwise, but couldn't get behind them as they did the same. She barely even heard Vanille cheering "Go Fang!" from her spot just outside the fight. She took in everything around her, the size of the area she was fighting in, the size of her opponent, even something as subtle as the way the wind moved could affect the battle. She had to win this, she didn't know why, but she felt she had to win this. Losing was not an option here. That didn't mean winning was going to be easy.

All of a sudden there was a blur of motion in front of her and she barely had time to get her arms up to stop a blow to the face. She was too slow to block the quick follow up to her stomach though. She threw her fist out at her opponent, but they were already gone, just a few feet beyond her reach. This definitely wasn't going to be easy.

"That all you got?" She called out, hoping to taunt them into a premature attack.

"Not even close." Lightning responded, but kept her distance. Fang knew all too well that was true, she had barely laid two hits on the soldier, which almost made her regret training her as a sentinel. Lightning may not be able to take as many hits as herself, but she was very good at simply not getting hit. Fang knew her best chance was to catch Lightning off guard for a moment; she was so much quicker than Fang that an expected attack would miss without fail.

Fang rushed forward suddenly, charging like a behemoth at the soldier to catch her by surprise. She lowered her head and shoulders and threw her arms out wide to catch the soldier around the middle. It took her less than two seconds to cover the distance between them, but that was apparently more than enough time for Lightning to react. Fang felt the soldiers hands on her own shoulders and seen her boots lift off the ground as Lightning flipped clean over her. She reacted on instinct, stopping her run and turning around instantly, her arm extended out to swing at the soldier. Her chop passed over Lightning's head, catching only the tail ends of pink hair where she had been just moments ago. A solid blow to her gut told Fang that Lightning was still there, though she didn't need it to know. She brought her free hand from her side in an uppercut that managed to connect with the bottom of the pinkette's jaw, sending her stumbling backwards.

Fang jumped at the opportunity, literally. She leapt into the air at the backpedaling soldier. Lightning dodged the unexpected attack, but fell to the ground in doing so. Fang was already on the offensive again, not wanting to have to catch up to quick-footed woman again. Her fist collided with the ground where Lightning's head had been just before. She turned her head and seen the soldier who had rolled out from under the blow in a runners position. She was up by the time Lightning started at her, but was still taken aback by the speed of the assault. Three blows Lightning swung at her, and three misses as Fang stepped back from each one. On the third she managed to anticipate and grab hold of Lightning's wrist.

She rushed forward while holding on to Lightning's wrist; pinning it to the soldier's chest as she was forced to run backwards. They collided into a tree, Fang pinning the soldier against it, her face extremely close to Lightning's. "Seem familiar?" She asked so only she could hear it, looking her in the eyes as she spoke.

"Does this?" Lightning responded, also never looking away. Then Fang felt Lightning's free hand hit her, again to the stomach, hard enough to force her to let go and step back. _Really should have seen that one comin'_ she thought to herself for a moment. She barely stepped back in time to avoid a follow up knee, and then ducked a blow to the head. The kick to her side she saw coming, and she couldn't avoid it. Instead she absorbed the blow and clamped her arm down over the leg, pinning it to her side. She latched on tight and spun rapidly in a complete circle, dragging the soldier with her and slamming her hard against the tree. A resounding _ohhhh_ was heard from their fellow L'cie in the audience.

Fang held on still to the soldier and prepared to do the same move again, in reverse. Lightning, however, seen this coming. Using Fang's grip on her leg she jumped with her free leg and pivoted in the hold. Her free foot collided with Fang's jaw, forcing her to release the soldier. Another _ohhh _was heard from the peanut gallery. Fang stumbled back only for a moment before collecting herself. Lightning was already on her again. She blocked a sudden knee to the stomach, and ducked a swing at her head. An uppercut glanced off her jaw as she stood up and stepped back. A few quick steps put some distance between herself and the little pink haired woman that was kicking her ass.

A moment later Lightning continued the assault, not giving Fang a second of respite. The larger woman was forced to step back at each blow aimed at her. One, two, three, four, five strike swung, and five misses as Fang moved away from each one. The last one an uppercut that Fang though may have taken her head clean off. However the strength of the missed strike left Lightning open for split second and that was all she needed. Fang threw a quick jab that struck Lightning right in the nose, nearly breaking it, and knocking the soldier off balance. Fang then struck her in the stomach, followed by a hook to the jaw, a knee to the ribs, and a powerful uppercut, again to the jaw.

Lightning staggered backwards attempting to get away from the huntress' sudden success. Fang attempted to keep the streak going with a hook aimed at Lightning's head. The soldier saw it coming and ducked, slipping underneath Fang's arm and getting behind her. She wrapped her arms under Fang's quickly, having them meet behind the taller woman's head to put her in a hold. "That won't work, Hun. I'm bigger than you." Fang said.

"Wanna bet?" Lightning asked. Fang was forced down as Lightning's foot found the back of her knee. Fang's arms where forced above her head by Lightning's arms while she was on her knees, leaving her fairly well trapped. "I got you now."

"I'll take that bet." Fang said. She put her hands together over her head and threw them backwards to hit Lightning, who couldn't move without compromising her hold, in the face. The force of the blow was limited due to her position, but she was strong and Lightning was sore from Fang's attack. It took six times, but Fang succeeded in dealing enough damage to weaken the soldiers hold. She fell forward, her weight freeing her, and then went to stand up quickly. She turned around and instinctively ducked, narrowly avoiding a punch from Lightning. She rushed forward from that position, driving her shoulder into the smaller woman's gut, and stood up, lifting Lightning, and then let her fall behind her.

Fang immediately turned around, knowing that Lightning could recover quickly. She was proven right by the fact that the soldier was already up and out of her reach. They looked at each other for a moment, each judging the other. Fang could see that Lightning was starting to wear out, her shoulders were slouching a little and she was breathing heavy. She also knew that Lightning could see the same in her. Fang reached up and wiped blood from the corner of her mouth with the back of her hand, and grinned. "You put up a good fight, Sunshine." She said, "But this one is all mine."

Lightning spat a mixture of blood and saliva on the ground. "We'll just see about that." Was her response. Despite this, she didn't make any move towards her opponent. Fang knew immediately that Lightning was playing defense again. That wasn't good since Fang could barely hit the soldier before she got worn out. Lightning was worn too though, so that would help some. She began to move to her right, attempting to circle around the soldier. Lightning matched the action so they she couldn't get around.

Out of nowhere Lightning rushed forward and ran at Fang with her fist drawn back. Rather than try and dodge the attack Fang braced herself, legs set wide and arms in front ready to block. As Lightning got close Fang tensed, then all of a sudden she was gone. Fang turned around, but not fast enough, at halfway she felt Lightning's leg hit her in the stomach. She ducked a swing at her head. She stepped back again to dodge a follow up attack aimed at her jaw, and drew her arm back as she did so. As Lightning's blow missed she was open for a moment, and Fang slammed her fist forward into the soldier's face. There was an audible pop as Lightning's nose broke.

Lightning stumble backwards and covered her face for a moment. She wiped away blood from her nose as she drew her hands away, and returned to her combat stance. "You just don't give up do ya?" Fang asked as they began to circle each other again.

"You're one to talk." Lightning retorted, her voice altered by her broken nose. They completed a half circle around each other, switching their positions, before Fang attacked. She ran at Lightning hoping to catch her by surprise, which didn't happen. Lightning stood her ground as Fang ran full sprint at her. When the huntress reached the point she couldn't stop Lightning finally moved. She threw a kick directly in front of herself, her timing was perfect. Fang ran directly into Lightning's foot, meeting the force of the kick with the force of her sprint. The blow caught her just below the chest, taking the wind out of her and leaving her lying on her back. She rolled out of the way as Lightning's foot came down in a stomp while she tried to catch her breath. She scrambled up and away from the soldier and managed to get some air.

Lightning was already after her again. Without time to evade Fang was again forced to block Lightning's attacks. One arm moved down to block a knee aimed at her ribs, the other moved up to block a fist headed for her jaw. Lightning's hand collided with Fang's now exposed midsection and she realized Lightning must have planned for that. Lightning attempted a follow up attack, but Fang successfully blocked it, causing the soldier to quickly back out of Fang's reach to plan her next attack.

Fang studied the soldier in front of her. By now both of them had their shoulders drooping were breathing heavy. Even like this Lightning was still faster than her, they both knew that. Lightning's speed had given her a surprising advantage in this fight. Fang's strikes had dealt more damage, she had even managed to break her nose, but Lightning had hit more often, missed less, and avoided more. She would have to plan out her attack the same way Lightning did if she wanted to get another hit. Fang knew Lightning couldn't take as many hits as she could, so a few more solid blows would likely get her to stay down.

Fang ran forward at Lightning, and then jumped high into the air with her fist drawn back. As expected Lightning did not stay in one place and wait to get hit, instead she quickly dodged right. Fang landed like a cat on both hands and feet, she had barely hit the ground when Lightning was after her. Fang had planned this and immediately threw her foot out without looking, hitting the attacking soldier in the stomach. She turned and put the force of standing into an uppercut that connected with the surprised woman's chin. She quickly drew back her fist for a third attack. She threw the punch, but Lightning reacted quickly and unexpectedly. Instead of trying to dodge she dropped her head, so Fang's fist collided with the solid top of her skull. Fang felt and heard a pop; the pain in her hand told her she had broken a finger. Lightning, having underestimated the force of the punch, was stunned and dazed.

Fang wasted no time thinking of her hand as she snatched up the chance to finish the fight. She grabbed the immobilized soldier by the waist and lifted her into the air, ignoring the pain in her hand. As Lightning began to come back to the ground Fang put both hands on the slowly falling woman and forced her to the ground at an accelerated pace. Lightning landed hard on her back, the ground was solid enough to knock some of the air out of the soldier, and the extra force meant it took more out of her too. Fang stood over the Lightning taking the time to try and catch her breath. She slouched enough that her hands were below her knees, and her breath came in large gasps.

Lightning slowly rolled over onto her stomach. She began to push herself up, bringing one knee under herself to help. _Please stay down, please stay down._ Fang thought to herself as Lightning began to get up. The soldier was on one knee now, her hand on the other to push herself up. As she tried to do so her arm gave out, followed quickly by her legs, leaving her to fall face down in the dirt. Fang lifted both fists into the air in victory. She then fell to her knees, both arms still in the air. "Looks like we have a winner." She heard Snow say. She let her arms drop to her sides and managed to rotate as she fell, so that she ended up lying on her back beside Lightning who was still face down in the dirt, neither of them able to keep standing.

The group gathered around where they were collapsed on the ground. Sazh and Snow stood while Hope and Vanille crouched down next to Lightning and Fang respectively. "You all right?" Hope asked Lightning. Lightning turned her head so she no longer head her face in the ground, but instead ended up looking in Fang's direction; she made no move to try and stand again.

"I'll be fine." She said simply.

"I knew you could do it, Fang." Vanille said cheerfully.

"You knew more than I did then." Fang responded.

"Same here." Hope said, "I owe Vanille 50 gil."

"50?" Sazh said with a laugh, "I just lost 500."

"And I just earned 500." Snow said, pumping his fist in the air.

"You guys bet on us?" Lightning asked.

"Duuuh." Vanille said.

"Do you need us to heal you?" Hope asked.

"Just heal the worst of it; the rest of it can wait." Lightning answered.

"Are you sure, cause we can heal it all." Vanille said.

"I'm sure, sparring rules, only the worst injuries get treated." Lightning explained.

"Same for me." Fang said, "Wouldn't want to spoil the victory by cheapin out would I?"

"I'll let you guys get healed up then, I'm goin over to the nice warm fire." Sazh said.

"Me too, think I'll get my money now." Snow said.

"I can handle this if you want to go warm up too." Vanille said to Hope as the two men started away.

"You sure?" He asked.

"Yeah, It's not as bad as it looks, especially since I won't have to do it all." She said.

"You won't get cold?" He asked wondering.

"I'm from Gran Pulse remember, this isn't all that bad for me." She said.

"Alright." Hope said, and departed quickly for the fire without further argument.

"So," Vanille said, clapping her hands together, "Who needs what?"

"I broke my hand," Fang said, then smiled and looked at Lightning, "And I think I broke Sunshine's face."

"Very funny Fang." Lightning said, "I swear if this doesn't go back the way it was, I'll kick your ass."

"That'd be a lot more intimidatin' if ya weren't lyin in the dirt on your stomach." Fang responded.

Lightning moved her hands under herself and then pushed, managing to hold herself up for a few seconds. She quickly turned over, allowing herself to fall back to the ground, this time on her back. She turned her head to glare at Fang. "Still not scarin me. I won, I'm happy." Fang said.

"Will you two stop bickering so I can heal you?" Vanille asked

"Alright. Start with Sunshine; she looks like she could use it." Fang said, earning her another glare that she countered with a grin.

Lightning felt a tingling sensation as her nose moved itself and then welded back together. She wriggled and twisted her nose to make sure it was fixed once Vanille was done. She then reached down with one hand and pulled out the knife Serah gave her, her gunblade had been left by the fire. She flipped open the blade and looked at herself in the reflection, her nose was just like it was before, though she had multiple other cuts on her face, as well as blood, some dried some fresh. "Show me." She heard Fang say.

Lightning turned her head to look at Fang as she put the blade away. "Pretty as a picture." Fang said with a smile.

"Lucky for you." Lightning responded.

"Ain't gonna argue with that." Fang said, and then held up her broken hand, "My turn." It was a strange sight watching the hand set and mend itself in just a few moments; the actions appearing to be impossible movements of the hand instead of a normal healing process. When the job was done Fang flexed her hand to make sure everything was in working order. "Never get used to that." She commented.

"You've done that before." Lightning inquired.

"Had a bone healed by magic?" Fang asked, getting a nod in response. "Yeah, this'll make four times."

"Speaking of healing," Vanille said, interrupting the small conversation, "are you two sure you don't need any more?" She looked between the two women who were still both lying on the ground.

"I'm good." Fang said, and then turned her head towards Lightning to ask "What about you, Sunshine?"

"I'll be fine." Lightning said.

"Okay then," Vanille said, standing up from her crouched position, "I'll be over by the fire."

They both watched as Vanille skipped away towards the fire. After a few minutes of simply lying there, Fang finally broke the silence. "Well, we should probably join them." She said, before slowly sitting up. Standing up took even more effort and by the time she had accomplished it Lightning was sitting up as well. Fang offered her arm to help the soldier up and was somewhat surprised when it was accepted. "Ya know what, Sunshine?" Fang started, and then waited until she had Lightning's attention before continuing, "I think you really did kick my ass. It's a little sore." She said, putting her hand on her own backside for emphasis.

"What do you want me to do about it?" Lightning asked, and then added sarcastically, "Kiss it and make it better."

"Is that an offer?" Fang asked, raising her eyebrows and grinning at the woman. Lightning rolled her eyes as she realized she had walked right into that one.

"Just get back to the fire. Hopefully it'll have quite raining by tomorrow." Lightning said.

"Alright, I'm goin', but I'll tell ya one thing." Fang said as they started walking towards the fire and the rest of the group, "I ain't takin watch tonight."

"Agreed." Lightning said. She knew she was going to sleep well tonight. She also hoped it would stop raining so they could get back to normal training. She wouldn't say it outright, but fighting with Fang was harder than any beast she had seen on Gran Pulse so far, and she wasn't sure she could do it again. It was also, however, a lot more fun than fighting anyone or anything else.

_**._**_

_**Hope you enjoyed that, i had a bit of trouble with the ending there. Sorry it took so long, got held up with classes. As always I hope you leave reviews, they always help. I would also like thank you for reading, just because.**_


	8. Chapter 8

_**Finally updated, sorry it's so late, i've had a bit of writers block. still hope you enjoy it.**_

Chapter 8

Lightning looked at the Cie'th stone in front of her. She was glad to finally be back to working their way through Titan's trials. The gurangatch had been a good warm up to get them back into the spirit of battle. She herself hadn't needed it for that purpose, nor had Fang or Snow, but Sazh, Hope, and Vanille had been less than excited about continuing to fight. The battle had helped herself, and presumably Fang, work out some of the tightness and kinks left in their muscles after their battle with each other just the night before.

"Well what's up next, Sunshine?" Fang said behind her.

"Amam." Lightning said.

"Sounds easy enough, unless there are any objections?" Fang started, looking at the rest of the group, "None? Okay, hit it."

Lightning turned back and activated the Amam stone. A moment later they were in a new location and the narrow path made the location of the creatures obvious. It wasn't long before they found the target, two amams waiting in the middle of the road.

"This is going to be easy." Snow said before rushing head on at the creatures, followed quickly by Fang.

"Idiot." Was all Lightning said before following the two. As Snow and Fang rushed the beasts they were suddenly halted by a green cloud of toxic smoke. The gas dissipated fairly quickly, but had stopped their momentum and given them both a number of status ailments. Lightning arrived a second later and set about healing the ailments as Fang and Snow attacked one of the monsters.

Once the status ailments were removed and the three of them were all in moderate health, Lightning joined the fighting. Adding ice to her attacks she and Snow attacked one of the beasts, while Fang handled the other. The amam Snow and Lightning were fighting switched targets out of the blue, ignoring its attackers to assist its ally. It jumped at Fang's site with its jaws set wide open. The huntress' reactions where quick however, and she turned to her side and swatted the beast out of the air. Before it could correct itself, Snow ran over and rained multiple amp enhanced blows down on the animals head, crushing its skull into nothing. As he did this the second amam jumped at Fang just after she had swatted down the first one, and managed to knock her down in the process. It stood on her and reared back its head as it went to attack. Fang didn't even have to block the attack as Lightning's gunblade, out of nowhere, appeared and was buried in the roof of the beast's mouth, killing it instantly.

Fang pushed the dead creature off of her, and stood up, brushing herself off and wiping the blood from her face. "Thanks for that, but I could'a handled it." She said to Lightning.

"I know." Lightning responded. Fang expected her to say something else, but instead she simply continued on the path toward the next set of cie'th stones. Fang shrugged and followed the soldier up to the stone ahead of them, the rest of the group trailing behind them. Fang caught up to Lightning as she started to walk away from the first stone. She paused for a moment to look at why the woman had skipped it and realized it was an Ochu, and the same test they had already passed. Fang moved on towards, following Lightning's path, and managed to get her back within sight as she activated the second cie'th stone. After activating the stone Lightning turned and looked at the approaching huntress' who was leading the group after her. Fang noticed something odd about the woman, a slight tug at the corner of her mouth. Not a smile, more like a suppressed smirk.

"What's so funny?" Fang asked, grinning back at the soldier.

"Take a look." Lightning said, motioning with her hand toward the stone as she stepped aside. The look on Fang's face as she activated the stone immediately and permanently etched itself in Lightning's memory. The look was a mixture of surprise, disgust, and annoyance.

"What is it Fang?" Vanille asked, seeing the look on her friend face.

"Tonberry." Fang said with a snarl. Vanille grinned and Snow nearly burst out laughing at the way Fang said the name. Lightning continued the difficult task of hiding her smirk. Sazh just shook his head, and Hope seemed oblivious to the reason the others found it funny.

"You can always sit this one out Fang." Lightning said, garnering the larger woman's attention, "If you think you can't handle it." Fang was actually surprised at the statement. Lightning was mocking her, and she was not just going to stand around and let that happen.

"Oh I can handle it, Sunshine." Fang said, getting defensive as the soldier attacked her pride. "That little green jackass ain't gonna know what hit him."

"If you say so." Lightning said, and then turned and activated the cie'th stone before Fang could change her mind. The found themselves in yet another new location. As they progressed forward they could see a large green creature in front of them.

"You did say this was a Tonberry didn't you?" Sazh asked.

"That's what it said." Lightning answered.

"Then why is there an Ochu here?" He asked, nodding at the imposing creature before them.

"It's got to be around here somewhere." Hope said, looking around while trying to avoid the Ochu's line of sight.

"Let's just find it and kill it." Fang said, still annoyed at their current choice of target.

"I think there's a path over there." Hope said, pointing to their left. They worked their way towards the narrow path, avoiding the Ochu so as to not wear themselves out. Surprisingly enough, it was Fang who was in front, setting a brisk pace for them to follow. They hadn't gone very far, though, before they spotted the Tonberry. Fang stopped walking and stood dead in her tracks, starring at the sight. "There's three of 'em." She said.

"I see that." Lightning said as she walked up beside the huntress, "Is that going to be a problem?" Lightning wasn't always able to guess what Fang would do next, but she still knew how to play on her pride and competitive spirit, and that was exactly what she was going to do. "You can sit this one out if you want to Fang." Lightning started back in, "No one would blame you. After all they are scary, being all little and green. So you can just go ahead and step back, if you don't think you can handle it." As she ended she looked at the older woman, her face set and straight as she could keep it. Fang's expression was a little less controlled.

"Oh I can handle 'em." She said, her pride demanding a defense, "I'm gonna kick some little green ass." Fang ran forward at this, catching the three Tonberry off guard. Lightning followed Fang into the assault, and Hope followed her, as he tended to do.

The battle started out quickly, Fang's surprise attack proving to be a valuable asset as she landed a flurry of blows against one of the targets, and then tossed it into the air with a flip of her lance. Lightning and Hope rushed one of the others, Hope's magic attack knocking it off balance and Lightning launching their Tonberry into the air as well. The three of them cut loose on the monsters, Fang's lance slicing through the air with precision, while Lightning's blade cut fast and Hope's magic rained down the many elements on the beast. Despite this both of their targets managed to correct themselves after a short time, and the third beast had already began attacking them. "Keep them off guard!" Lightning yelled out, causing Fang and Hope to both switch up their tactics. Hope set about healing the three of them while Fang started casting impairments in an attempt to lower the tonberry's defenses. Lightning chose to keep up the assault that had started on the weakest of the three monsters. When Fang finally succeeded in dropping the defenses of her target, the three of them switched again. All of them targeted the same one Lightning had just been attacking. In a matter of moments the beast was dead, but the battle was still going.

They immediately began attacking the second Tonberry, Fang's original target. After just a moment Lightning realized they were going too slow and called out to Fang to take knock its defenses down. As Fang began working on crippling the creature Lightning and Hope continued attacking. The strong hide of the Tonberry made their attacks limited in effectiveness, but they were still hitting fairly hard. As soon as Fang managed to break its defenses she began attacking alongside the other two, and the beast soon ended up impaled on the end of her lance.

Lightning turned on the spot and shot a look at Hope, who immediately began working to heal the multiple knife wounds they had sustained. He had only healed them slightly when the last Tonberry released a wave magic that hit them all. The few wounds it had sustained were healed along with the status ailments Fang had put on it. Lightning didn't even have to look at Fang to know she was already working to lower the monsters now heightened defenses. She chose to start the attack while Hope continued healing them. When the spells had finally been placed Fang started to attack alongside Lightning and Hope took the time to place a few boosts on the three of them. He only placed a few before joining the assault with a series of powerful magical attacks. With its defenses gone and their attacks boosted the Tonberry's health dropped rapidly. After finishing another flurry of attacks against the small creature Lightning put some distance with a back hand spring, leaving Fang and the Tonberry in front of her, and Hope back and to her right. As her feet hit the ground Lightning's eyes watched as Fang landed three quick strikes on her least favorite of monsters and then hit it once hard enough to send it flying in her direction. She reacted on instinct at the Tonberry flew through the air directly at her, swinging her gunblade to hit it off course so it flew behind her. Both women watched the small green monster fly through the air towards Hope. As the creature passed in high front of him Hope brought his clenched fist down, causing multiple thunderbolts to rip down from the sky onto the creature, halting its momentum and bringing it crashing to the ground with smoke coming off of it.

"Not so tough now are ya?" Fang said, mocking the dead animal as she stood over it. She stabbed at the smoking corpse a few times with her spear. "Teach you to mess with Oerba Yun Fang."

"It's dead, Fang. Leave it alone." Lightning said. She wasn't quite sure what to make of Fang's hatred of the creature that was so harmless in appearance that it was a common children's toy. "Let's just move on to the next one. We have two stones, one here, and one behind the Ochu."

"No we don't." Sazh said, causing Lightning to turn and see him, Snow, and Vanille walking towards them. "While you three were fighting those guys, we took out the big one. The stone over there is still quiet."

"Guess that leaves us with just this one." Fang said, gesturing towards the stone next to them.

"Guess so." Lightning said as she walked past Fang to activate the stone, "Neochu, ever heard of it?" She asked.

"Yeah." Fang said as she walked over to stand in front of the stone next to Lightning, "It's just a bigger, badder version of the basic one. Never fought one m'self, but how much worse could it be."

"Well what are we waitin' for? Let's go." Snow said from behind the two of them. Lightning didn't turn around to look at him, it would just annoy her. She raised her hand and activated the stone, sending them to Titan's Throne. They moved forward along the simple path, it was just a moment before they could see the cliff drop that was the battlefield. Lightning stopped and turned around, the group gathered around as she started speaking.

"Alright, this is one of Titan's big guy, anyone need a breather?" She asked, looking at each of them in turn.

"I'm good if you are." Fang said as Lightning's eyes found her.

"Careful Fang, your competitive streak is showing." Was Lightning's response.

"I could actually use a break." Hope said, getting him more attention than he seemed to want. When Lightning looked at him though, he quickly added, "From the fighting, just for a moment."

"Alright kid, I'll take over for ya." Snow said, stepping forwards, "That thing'll never know what hit it."

"More like you'll know what hit you." Fang said to Snow.

"Yeah, I'll – Wait what?" Snow said as he suddenly realized he'd been insulted.

"Yep, that's what you do best, get hit." Fang continued, barely managing to keep a straight face at this point.

"I do more than that." Snow said, defending his pride.

"Yeah, you also yell at them a lot." Lightning said casually, adding on to Fang's verbal assault on Snow's battle tactics.

"Alright, alright." Sazh said, interrupting whatever Snow had been about to say, "Let's leave the big guy alone. Maybe we should get back to killing the monsters. Everyone good with that?"

"Right. Let's move." Lightning said, leading towards the battlefield.

The battle began as soon as Titan set down the beast. Fang and Lightning immediately began attacking the large creature, while drew its attacks. It was just a few moments later that Snow was starting to get fairly weak. Lightning stopped attacking and started healing him, the process somewhat slowed by attacks from the Neochu. After a short period she managed to get him back to what she thought was fair enough health, and rejoined the attack. She could still hear the blows landing behind her as the creature continued to attack Snow. She knew it probably wouldn't be long before she would have to heal him again.

Lightning suddenly heard a loud yell from behind her and turned to look. She wasn't sure if it was bad timing on Snow's part, or good on the Neochu's, but just as Snow had dropped his guard for a moment, it had struck. It sent the large man flying into the air, and coming down with a heavy thud. Being already weakened by the previous attacks meant that he was barely able to roll himself over, getting up was out of the question.

A quick switch of strategy set Fang on defense and Lightning as a healer. Just as she was about to heal him though, the Neochu's attack burst through the ground at her feet, sending her into the air as it had Snow. The blow left her rattled; she was able to get up but just barely. She turned the healing magic on herself, clearing her vision and letting her stand better. She knew she didn't have to worry about another attack; Fang had drawn the fire for them. A few more doses of healing magic helped her, then one that worked for both herself and Fang. One more cast should put her high enough to start helping Snow again, she knew. Then she heard the Neochu stomp it's feet. She turned to see it inhale, then release a screech that hit her like a physical blow, knocking her to the ground. She rolled over on to one knee, but she wasn't going to be getting up from that one very soon.

Fang looked around. She was still standing after the last attack, having been ready for it, but Lightning was not so lucky. That left both Snow and Lightning on the ground, and she already had her hands full trying to recover. "I could use some help over here!" She shouted, knowing that the other three were waiting nearby. It was barely a moment later that shots rang out and hit the Neochu. Then Fang felt a rush as healing magic ran over her. Sazh and Hope showed up a second later as the sources.

Hope kept healing, starting with Lightning, while Sazh started laying down status magic to protect all of them. As soon as Lightning was up she started helping Hope with healing magic. Between the two of them they managed to raise Snow as well, and keep everyone in good health. Fang began attacking the creature as soon a Snow was well enough to draw it's attacks, and was quickly followed by Sazh and Lightning. Hope stayed back to heal any wounds.

They had only been attacking for a few moments when the beast again dealt a heavy blow, this time in the form of toxins. The debilitating gas it let loose cast a multitude of status ailments on them. Sazh's magic softened the blow somewhat, but they were still left weakened. Hope immediately started attempting to heal them of their various conditions, but the Neochu decided to strike while it had the chance. Vines erupted from the ground beneath Snow, who had already had his defenses taken down by the previous attack. Hope refocused his healing magic onto Snow, raising him up again. Fang and Snow both tried to get the monsters attention in order to keep the others safe, but they were just a little too slow. The creature next attack took Hope out in one shot.

In the chaos of the battle it took them a few seconds to notice that the young boy was no longer in the fight. Lightning switched up and stepped back, preparing healing magic, but was not quick enough. Ignoring both Fang and Snow once again, the beast took out Lightning, who had been suffering the effects of poison, weakening her so that Sazh boost to her defense had no effect.

Fang dropped her attempts at defense and immediately began attacking the large beast in front of her, she knew that Snow could handle defense for a moment. Shots fired at the creature told her Sazh was doing the same. She also heard the sound of Snow standing through another of the powerful creature's attacks. She put all of her effort into her attacks, but still barely managed to leave a mark on the beast's thick hide. She used every attack she could think of, using one handed and two handed swings, as well as breaking her lance down into its three part form, but nothing seemed to be able to deal any serious damage.

A she backed away after another chain of attacks, Fang took a moment to catch her breath, while behind her Sazh continued firing shots and Snow took yet another hit. Fang prepared herself to rush in again, hoping that this time one of her hits would do some real damage. However before she could the giant beast let out a second screech, so powerful it managed to bring both Sazh and Fang to their knees, leaving Snow the only person involved in the fight who was still standing. Likely hoping to rid itself of this one last annoyance, the Neochu let loose a breath of toxic gas, crippling the large man before it.

_We're done for. _Fang thought, as she looked at the debilitated l'cie that was barely standing before the imposing beast. Then, out of nowhere, she saw a streak of green magic heal the man. She just managed to turn enough to see Vanille running up to the battle, healing the sentinel. As soon as she had healed him, she removed the status ailments that had been plaguing him. "Thanks, I needed that." He said, barely turning his head to look at the young girl.

"Run." Fang barely managed to choke out, "Get out of here, both of you. We can't beat this thing."

"No." Vanille said, her voice stern, "I should have been helping you before. This is my fault and I'm going to fix it."

"You got a plan to take this thing down?" Snow asked.

"Sort of." She said, though she didn't seem sure.

"Works for me." He said, grinning as he provoked the large monster. Vanille immediately switched into her saboteur role, and quickly cast imperil on the beast. After getting the spell to stick, she seemed to stop attacking for a moment, simply standing there. The she threw out her left hand toward the massive creature, causing a few black spots to appear in the area around, though they quickly faded.

Three times she repeated the maneuver, but it appeared that her spell simply wasn't working. She threw out the spell a fourth time, and got no better results than before. Just after she had failed again, vines erupted from beneath Snow's feet, and he dropped to his knee, having taken more hits than even he could handle. Vanille looked around, all of her friends had been defeated by the monster, and she wasn't just going to let it get away with that, but she knew she wasn't strong enough to survive one of its attacks.

She focused hard on her spell, putting every ounce of willpower she had into it. She knew she would only get one more shot, and she was going to make sure that was all that it took. "It's time to end this!" She shouted, throwing her left arm forward with her palm facing the imposing beast. Darkness swirled around the monster, cloaking it for a moment, and then rushing in. As the wisps cleared away it was clear, the beast that had felled nearly all of them, was dead.

Vanille healed Hope first, and then they healed Lightning. Between the three of them they were all healed in no time. They were engulfed in magic, as they were transported back to the beginning of the Faultwarrens. "Everybody okay?" Vanille asked, getting enough response to know that everyone was healed. "Good, then let's get back to camp." With that she turned and skipped ahead, leading back towards their most recent campsite.

….

The fire burned brightly in the center of the camp, providing heat and light for those around it as the sun set and deeper cold began to settle in. As Lightning looked around at her fellow l'cie she realized that their last fight must have gotten to them. Everyone seemed to be depressed. Normally she would have attributed this simply to their situation, however she knew at the moment that it came from their near failure earlier. Vanille had been attempting to cheer everyone up, as she was apparently the only one unaffected, but had given up and allowed even herself to succumb to the gloom that hung over them all like a cloud.

At the moment there was one particular person who Lightning was worried about. It wasn't Hope; she was used to him being depressed. Nor was it Sazh, whom she knew could handle himself. She definitely wasn't worried about Snow, or Vanille for that matter, they would both bounce back quickly. It was Fang that bothered her at the moment. It just wasn't right, Fang wasn't one to get depressed, pissed off maybe, but not depressed. She didn't like seeing the woman like this; she knew she had to do something about it. Fang had been there for her when she needed it, now it was time she returned the favor. "I'm going to check the perimeter." She said as she stood up. She barely even got a glance from the rest of the group; they had figured out a while back that this was simply what Lightning said when she wanted to walk away.

Lightning crossed through the middle of the camp on her way out. As she walked past Fang she let the back of her hand brush against her. She paused for a moment when Fang turned to look at her from the contact, giving a subtle nod of her head, then continuing on. Fang must have got the message because Lightning had barely taken more than a few steps when she heard Fang stand up behind her. "Hold up a minute Sunshine, I'm goin' with ya'. Getting' bored just starin' at the fire." With that the two of them walked off without as much as a look from the rest of the group.

When they were finally out of earshot, Fang spoke up. "So, what'd ya pull me out here for?" she asked. It didn't surprise Lightning that Fang had spoken up first, she usually did, what surprised her was the way she said it. The calmness and lack of emotion in her voice reminded Lightning more of herself than of Fang, and that bothered her even more than she already was. She decided the direct approach would be best, and so she turned and looked Fang directly in the eyes as she said "What's wrong?"

Fang was taken aback by the sudden statement. Lightning usually didn't show an interest in people's personal problems, with the exception of Hope, who she seemed to have taken under her wing. "What'd ya mean?" she asked. She knew she wasn't at her peak right now, but she wasn't sure that Lightning could see it, so it was probably best to just play dumb, hopefully the problem would go away.

Lightning cut through Fang's hopes in single breath. "You know exactly what I mean, so don't even try playing dumb." She said. "Ever since we got back from that last set of trials you haven't been yourself, so I'll ask again. What's wrong? And I want an answer this time." Lightning held Fang's gaze even after she finished, staring into Fang's eyes with a force. Finally Fang turned away, though she could still feel Lightning's on her, waiting for an answer.

Fang dropped her head for a moment as she gave in, and then let a long sigh before beginning. "I wasn't strong enough." She said as she turned to face the soldier. Lightning didn't speak, nor even blink, as she waited for Fang to continue. "I went up against that thing, and I lost. All my training, all my hunting, all my powers as a maker forsaken l'cie, and I was stopped by oversized fur ball."

Fang paused for a moment, catching her breath, and hoping Lightning would play her side in the conversation. Again she was given the silent treatment, leaving her to do the talking. "Ever since my parents died in the war, I swore I would be strong enough; strong enough to protect myself, my friends, my family. I trained constantly, I hunted and fought countless beasts, and I beat anyone who would take my challenge. I even went so far as to get branded a l'cie and became ragnorok in order to protect my home, but I wasn't strong enough. I wasn't strong enough then, and I wasn't strong enough today. How am I supposed to help anyone when I'm not even able to kill some random creature?"

Lightning took a step forward and put her hand on Fang's shoulder. "Fang, you are the strongest person I know. After everything you've been through, you still manage to enjoy the moment. Something I'm still trying to figure out how to do. And, unless I'm wrong, the Neochu is dead, and we all made it out alright."

Fang looked away from Lightning when she spoke, trying to hide the shame she was feeling. "Yeah, but I still failed. I was down and out. If it hadn't been for Van… I couldn't protect her, or you, or anyone. I had to be saved; I'm supposed to be the one who rescues her, not the other way around."

Lighting moved her hand to Fang's face, turning her to look her in the eyes again. "You weren't the only one who was taken out, Fang, remember? We all got our asses handed to us by that thing. You're right, if it hadn't been for Vanille, we wouldn't be here right now, but isn't that why we're all here? Wasn't it you who told me we aren't in this alone? When one of us wins, we all do. You shouldn't think you need to be indestructible, everyone needs help once in a while, just don't be too proud to take it. We're stronger together than we are apart, even if you're not strong enough, we'll be there to help you. **I'll**be there to help you."

Fang looked into Lightning's eyes for a moment before letting a small smile break through. She pulled Lightning into an unexpected hug and held her close. After a short while she separated from the hug, only to plant a small but caring kiss on her girlfriend's lips. "Thank you." She said, her usual grin returning. This itself earned a smile from Lightning. The unexpected sight left Fang speechless, she hadn't seen a real smile on the soldier's face before, and now she never wanted to see her without it. "You should do that more often."

"What's that?" Lightning asked, suddenly confused.

"Smile." Fang answered, causing her new favorite look to cross Lightning's face yet again. "Now let's get back to the others and see if you can cheer them up too."

"Yeah, I'll leave that to you and Vanille. Just don't cheer up Snow. I like him better when he's not talking."

"We all do."

On getting back to camp they found everything was different than they had left it. Hope and Vanille were playing with the chocobo chick and Snow was telling Sazh an apparently funny story, based on the grin on the older man's face. As they walked in Lightning immediately returned to her seat on the other side of the camp, while Fang sat down next to Vanille. "So what happened here?" Fang asked, "When we left everyone looked like an oretoise had stepped on their favorite toy."

"Dinner happened." Vanille said with a very suspicious grin, "We saved you two some." With that she pointed at a bed of coals just outside the sitting area. Turning on a spit over the bed of coals was one of the tonberries they had fought earlier that day. Fang's jaw nearly hit the ground.

"You can eat Tonberry?" Lightning asked, she had never heard of such a thing back on Cocoon.

"Oh yeah." Fang said, "The little bastards are annoying as hell, but they're also delicious. A Gran Pulse delicacy."

"Well, let's eat." Lightning said, "Everyone else can hit the sack, I'll take first watch." She and Fang walked over to the cooked monster and sat down while everyone else lay down. Lightning began cutting pieces of meat off of the meal with the knife Serah had given her. Sure enough it turned out to be quite good. In the end it was just her and Fang, talking into the night while everyone else slept. Despite the problems earlier that day, Lightning thought the night turned out well.

...

**_Had some trouble with this one, as i said before, hope that fixes itself soon. Hope you enjoyed, and please leave a review, constructive critisism always welcome. and thank you to all readers, and fans of struck, a new fav, follow, or especially review always make my day._**


	9. Chapter 9

_**I know, it's been a while. well wait no longer, the next chapter is here.**_

_**...**_

Chapter 9

"First one there wins?" Fang asked, looking at the pink haired woman next to her. Having just come into the area by way of cie'th stone teleportation the entire group immediately knew the area, they had been here before.

"Fang, it's a trial, not a race." Lightning responded, though she knew it would do nothing to stop Fang's competitive streak.

"It is when we're fightin' the slugs. Those things die when you look at 'em real hard." The warrior responded with a grin. She locked eyes with the smaller woman, staring at her and daring her to make the first move. Lightning stared back, seemingly unfazed by the taller woman's challenge. All of a sudden Lightning took off like a shot, leaving Fang barely enough time to register that she was now staring at the ground instead of Lightning's sky blue eyes. The huntress recovered quickly however, chasing after the woman. Fang wasn't even sure if her target was the group of rafflasia they were here to kill, or the woman who was currently about to kill them.

Lightning closed in on the small creatures at a rapid pace, leaving no chance that she could be passed. She knew Fang was right, one good swing or powerful spell and the animals would be no more. That meant that the first person there got to kill them. Lightning was just about to attack when she came to a hurried stop, her feet sliding across the ground as ice suddenly erupted out of the ground in front of her. The magical ice quickly faded away, leaving the dead animals in its wake.

Lightning turned around to look at the group, seeing Fang do the same. Vanille was standing closest to the two of them with her hand stretched out, making her the obvious source of the spell. They watched as she simply skipped past them both to stand in the exact spot that her spell had hit, turned to face them and said with a smile "I win."

"That's just not fair." Fang said, shaking her head lightly at the red head.

"Well I can't let the two of you have all the fun, now can I?"

"I guess not." Fang said and then looked around, "Well, looks like this one's over. Where to next?"

"The Ochu." Lightning said, walking past Fang and Vanille to lead the group, leaving both women to fall in step with the rest of the group.

"Ain't we already fought that one before too?" Fang asked.

"You know we have to go through the early ones to get to the stronger ones."

"Yeah, but why go through these ones? There are other ways we could go."

"Yes, there are other ways, but none that lead this way. After were done here, then we will have new things for you to kill."

"Sounds good to me, just so long as I'm killin' somethin' bigger than those things. It ain't worth it if we don't got a challenge."

"Can we get a move on already?" Snow said, butting into the conversation, "You two aren't the only ones who want to kill stuff."

"Right. We need to keep moving. Fang, Vanille, take a step back. Hope, Snow, you two are up." Light ordered.

Fang narrowed her eyes at Lightning as she fell back to join Sazh and Vanille at the back of the group. In truth she wasn't really bothered by being taken out of the fighting for a moment, but she still didn't want Lightning to get to full of herself and think she could order everyone around. That was something she could deal with some other time though. She returned her thoughts to the real world just before Lightning put her hand on the cie'th stone and sent them all to another section of the Faultwarrens.

Just a few moments after being transported to their new position Lightning already had their next target in sight. Despite the large size of the creature she was not at all nervous about the upcoming fight. She knew that they had defeated others of its kind before so there was no need to worry. She picked up her pace somewhat as she began to get closer, knowing the others would do the same behind her. When she finally got close enough she unsheathed her gunblade and charged in, not even bothering to try and be subtle.

She set fire to her weapon as she attacked the first mirochu that happened to cross her path. She struck at the oversized seed multiple times, attempting to break through its shell like body, before ending with a reverse handspring and a gunshot. She raised her blade reengage the small plant, but before she could three fire spells collided with the side of it, and then Snow ran forward and landed four powerful blows, leaving it done for. She barely spared a glance at the dead creature before moving on to the next one.

Even with help from the much larger Ochu, the smaller beasts never stood a chance. The group dismissed the others in a similar fashion to the first, using fire based magic and attacks to deal as much damage as possible. After this was done they turned their attention to the much more difficult parent. Lightning charged in at the larger monster, no longer bothering with putting fire on her blade as Hope had taken care of that for her. She charged the Ochu on one side while Snow attacked the other and Hope began casting spells from a somewhat safer distance. She slashed and hacked at the large wall of fur in front of her, occasionally moving back to fire a shot or cast a spell. Despite the lack of any open wounds on the creature, she knew they were making progress.

It wasn't long before the Ochu knew it was being beaten, and decided to try to summon some reinforcements. The seeds it planted grew rapidly, and in moments there were more mirochu on the field. Lightning didn't go straight into attacking the creatures, but rather focused on creating the most powerful fire spell she could manage. She held the spell in her hand and looked to Hope and Snow, who each nodded and did the same. In just a few seconds all three of them held fire magic at the ready. On Lightning's signal they all released their magic into the center of the mirochu group. What they hadn't expected was that each spell would strengthen the others, making an explosive blast of fire magic that created a mushroom cloud at least twenty feet tall and knocked all of them, including those outside the battle, flat on their backs.

Lightning sat up slowly, so as not to hurt herself. She hadn't been injured by the blast, but it had thrown her for a loop, so to speak. This was the first time any type of their own magic had had a negative effect on them. She looked around to see the others getting up as well, and also saw that the Ochu had been killed and all the mirochu were nowhere to be found. She looked at each person to make sure they were okay and notice that everyone seemed to be like her, unharmed but surprised. Her eyes finally moved to Snow as he sat up and she couldn't help but notice the thin wisps of smoke coming from his head. "Snow," She said while still sitting, "Your hair is on fire."

"It is?" He asked, scrunching his eyebrows and tilting his head. Then he reached a hand up and gripped his hair, before pulling it back down to look at it. He held only a few loose hairs in his hands, but they were singed and still had small, nearly invisible wisps of smoke coming of them. "Huh, I guess it was."

By this time everyone else was up, including Lightning and Hope, so the large man quickly got up and dusted himself off. "My question," Hope began then paused to give everyone time to start listening, "is what in the world happened? Why did our own magic throw us back?" This left everyone else agreeing as to the oddity of the situation.

"Well," Vanille started with one hand across her waist and the other on her chin, giving the impression of thought, "My guess is that the combined power of the three different spells of the same type created a concussive force that was strong enough to knock us all down, but not so strong as to overcome the fact that it was you who made. So it threw us back, but couldn't actually hurt us, except for Snow, who got singed because he was the closest to the center of the blast." As she finished talking, Vanille turned to look at everyone with a smile on her face and was met with blank stares and slack jaws. This in turn caused her to give a look of surprise say "What?"

"No offense intended," Hope said, "but I don't think any of us expected you to say something that sounded so…" He trailed of as he finished, looking for the right word. "Intelligent?" Lightning offered. "Yeah, that's it. Something that sounded so intelligent."

"Hey! I'm smart." Vanille said, obviously offended despite the fact the he had said not to be. "Just because I'm a happy person doesn't mean I'm not smart." As she finished she crossed her arms and held her chin up high.

"Actually, it makes sense." Fang said. "Vanille is a healer, and the healers always studied magic, even if they couldn't use it; just in case they had to cure it. So aside from the Fal'cie, Van here probably knows more about magic than anyone alive."

"Well in that case, I guess it makes sense." Sazh said.

"Whatever the reasons, it doesn't matter. We should get moving." Lightning spoke over her shoulder before walking away, and towards the next cie'th stone. Not wanting to get left behind, everyone else followed quickly. A moment later they found themselves in front of the next stone, and a moment after that they were taken away to another location they had seen before. A few borgbear showed resistance, but were barely able to slow them down as they approached their target.

It wasn't long before they found it, the borgbear hero. They were spotted just seconds after they were in sight, making a first strike out of the question. On being spotted the first thing Snow did was charge in headfirst shouting a battle cry. Lightning simply sighed and followed, trailed closely by Hope. They dove straight into battle, with Lightning targeting the nearest creature and Hope taking a second to set all their weapons ablaze before casting fire magic on the same target. The small creature barely lasted a moment, and then Lightning was onto the next one. By the time Snow finished with his first creature, Lightning and Hope had already taken out two. Snow immediately began attacking the borgbear hero, while Lightning and Hope spared a second to take out the last borgbear before joining in on the attack. Between the three of them it never stood a chance. After a quick and relentless assault they backed up for a moment as the beast was near death. It immediately decided to attack Lightning. She easily sidestepped the attack and returned with slash from her gunblade that sent the creature in Snow's direction. As it spun around to face him Snow grabbed the creature's head in his left hand and held it in the air above his head. He let go and as the beast fell he drew back and landed a powerful blow to its face causing it to hit the ground and continue to slide until it hit the cliff face. No one even had to check twice, it was dead.

"Wow." Hope said, staring at the dead animal, "You hit that thing hard."

"Looks like the hero killed the hero." Fang said, "Kinda ironic, don't ya think?"

"Yeah well, it's dead. That's all that matters." Lightning said, before turning to look at the rest of the group. She looked at Hope, who appeared fine, but was breathing just a little too heavy for her liking. Snow was slouching slightly and rolling his shoulders. Normally these wouldn't be problems, but she knew what was coming next and needed people at their best. "Sazh, you're up, step in for Hope. Fang, you're in for Snow. And both of you be ready, this next one is gonna be big."

"How big we talkin'?" Sazh asked, unlike Fang a big fight wasn't something he was excited about.

"Zirnitra big." Lightning said, causing everyone's faces to drop, even Fang. Lightning didn't wait around for any more questions, instead she started towards the stone that she knew would take them to one of the toughest fights they had had. In the blink of an eye they found themselves in Titan's throne. A short walk put them just outside the field of battle. "Alright, time for a plan. Sazh, you be ready to counter any status magic it throws our way. Fang, I want you to try and draw its attacks, but don't get yourself to badly hurt. Also try and throw a few ailments back at it. I'll be on healing duty when someone gets hurt, so try to limit that, obviously. As for offense, whenever you see an opening, throw everything you got at it. This is going to be a real challenge, but it's still just an animal. Barring any seriously bad luck, we should be able to come out on top, even if it takes a while. So is everyone ready?" Lightning received five synchronized nods in response. She turned to face forward, but didn't move just yet. Instead she took out a few of their precious shrouds. One fortisol and one aegisol to make sure they started their battles in top condition. After this she led them forward to face the challenge that Titan had set before them. She watched as the gigantic fal'cie reached forward and deposited the wyvern in front of them. The fight had begun.

Neither side hesitated to act. Lightning bolted forward, narrowly avoiding a toxic attack from the beast, before leaping into the air to begin attacking. Sazh immediately began firing at the large avian as fast as he could manage, while Fang began putting all of her energy into debilitating the overpowered creature. Fang barely managed to throw up an imperil on the creature before it started attacking again. She immediately began provoking the creature into targeting her, followed by a quick transfer into the mediguard technique. She barely managed to get her guard up before the Zirnitra's toxic magic hit and sapped her of her status boosts. Sazh noticed and started setting the defenses back up before any real ailments could be thrown at her. Luckily for her, her guard technique also rapidly increased regeneration, meaning Lightning didn't have to stop attacking to heal. All the while Lightning continued to attack the flying monster; repeatedly leaping into the air for direct assaults as well as throwing both fire and wind magic at it.

Fang dropped her guard for a moment after Sazh had managed to rebuild her defenses. Instead she attempted again to try and get more status magic on the beast. She already knew her slow spell wouldn't work, so instead opted to drop its defenses. She threw deshell and deprotect spells as fast as she could. It took way too many tries in her own opinion, but Fang finally managed to get a deshell to stick. She hadn't realized how long she had taken to do so until the Zirnitra fired off its toxic attack at Lightning instead of herself. She felt even worse when the attack caught the woman mid jump and knocked her to the ground and rolled her.

Fang didn't even hesitate to draw the large monster's attention back to herself with a stream of insult so that Sazh and Lightning could get to healing and boosting. She shrugged off one of its toxic bolts, but felt her defenses drop with it. Lightning was already back up and attacking, her fire and wind magic dealing hefty damage due to the weakening magic laid on the creature. Fang took a moment to rest from her rigid guard when Sazh moved his focus from Lightning to herself. He had just started doing so when the Zirnitra spun around so that its second, and larger, mouth was facing Fang.

It was barely a second after Fang quickly threw up her guard that the oversized maw collided with her lance. It was unable to gain enough purchase to actually bite her, but the immense force behind the blow knocked the wind out of her. Fang used her spear for support after the attack as Sazh finished with laying down his enhancements and took up magical attacks. Moments later Fang felt her energy return as she was hit with multiple green bolts of healing magic. She looked up and nodded at Lightning, showing she was fine now. The soldier returned with a nod of her own, then set about attacking the beast with magic once again.

By now the creature had forgotten about Fang and moved on to a more aggressive target; in this case, Sazh. The older man barely dodged another one of the beasts crippling magical attacks before returning with a few bolts of his own fire magic. Fang grinned before shouting at the creature, "Hey jackass! You wanna piece of me?" The Zirnitra shrieked in reply before letting loose another blast, this time targeting Fang again. The pulsian huntress easily stepped aside to avoid the anticipated attack, and then threw her arm out to cast a deprotect spell at the angered wyvern. To her luck, it stuck. "Well lady luck must be on our side today." She said.

With its defenses dropped to physical, magical, and elemental attacks, Fang decided a rush attack would work best. With her weapon already cloaked in fire from Sazh's enhancements Fang went in for raw power. Leaping just high enough to attack the bulky avian, Fang put all her strength into her swings. Lightning was soon beside her, though the smaller woman chose to augment Sazh's fire with her own when striking. Sazh supported the two women from the ground with fire magic of his own. Lightning and Fang returned to the ground at about the same time. Lightning immediately threw multiple blasts of wind magic into one wing of the creature to knock it off balance for a moment, which gave Fang enough time to dodge the beasts counter attack.

A volley of fire imbued gunshots hit the creatures head and neck as Sazh quickly distracted the creature, and then switched his duel pistols into one larger rifle to get off some more powerful hits. The beast swooped down for a moment, attacking Sazh with its whole body. The force of the blow landed him on his back. Fang drew the attention from her partners as Lightning ran at the beast, launching a few bits of healing magic at injured man as she did. The soldier then threw a blast of fire magic into the creatures face as she leapt into the air, clouding its vision so she could land a flurry of blows on its body. Fang took the opportunity to reinforce her status magic and keep it from failing. Another set of gunshots followed by a blast of fire magic from behind her told Fang that Sazh was back up.

Lightning hit the ground and jumped backwards out from underneath the target. Rather than jump back into attacks, she took a moment to catch her breath and summon some healing magic to her hand. She looked over just in time to see a blast of powerful degenerative magic hit Fang and she let loose the magic she had been holding. Fang took a second to give thanks for the magic before turning back to the battle. More boosting magic from behind told her Sazh was still keeping them all up in their defenses. The protection magic was just in time too; the Zirnitra suddenly spun in the air and swooped down with its larger mouth for the second time. Fang barely managed to raise her spear to guard herself from the snapping jaws that might have easily swallowed her whole. Despite this she still took the brunt of the blow, forcing her to need to use her spear to support herself.

Fang didn't have to stay out of breath for too long, as it was just a moment before healing magic washed over her once again. As she straightened up she took stock of the situation. The rush of the creature had weakened it quite a bit, however they had lost the advantage and were now barely able to get in a few attacks before healing; and she herself was stuck on defense to keep the other two from getting hit. Maybe if they were stronger they could simply stand up and take the beast on, but at the moment a turn of bad luck could cost lives. They needed a way to take this thing down as fast as possible. A look around at the environment set the gears in her head to turning. It only took a few seconds to come up with a good, though risky, plan.

"Cover me!" Fang yelled out to Sazh and Lightning.

"Whad'ya mean cover you? You are the cover!" Sazh said as he raised his guns, but Fang was already in action. She sprinted off to the side directly at the cliff face, covering the area in just a few seconds. She jumped into the air at the wall of rock and planted one foot on it. She coiled up against the wall and pushed of in an instant sending herself even higher, well above their current airborne target. Twisting in midair she started to come down, landing on the wyvern with enough force that it dropped half its distance to the ground.

The beast recovered quickly but protested loudly at Fang's presence on its back. "I gotcha now ya big bastard." She said before striking at the back of the creature's neck. The powerful blows were answered with another loud screech, followed by an attempt to buck the huntress off. The erratic flying forced the woman to stop attacking in order to hold her balance. A moment's pause in the action was all Fang needed to find a solution. "Teach you to try an' throw me off." She said before she stood up, raised her lance above her head in both hands, and then brought it down on the joint where one wing met the main body. The force of the blow broke bone as well as jammed the weapon into the creature's body, render the wing useless. With only one wing remaining the beast began to drop rapidly down away from the cliff face.

Fang pulled at the weapon stuck into the creature, but was unable to get it free. With her lance stuck she fell with the wyvern even as its one good wing still worked to keep it up. They fell to the side of the arena and down towards the near bottomless drop. As they just passed the edge of the area the monster's wing collided with the solid ground the rest of the l'cie were still standing on, breaking it as well. The collision occurred just as Fang finally pull her weapon free, but it was a moment too late. Both Fang and the wyvern went spiraling down rapidly into the darkness below.

"Fang!" Lightning screamed as she ran toward the edge of the arena. She threw herself to the ground with one arm reaching over the edge at the woman who quickly disappeared from her sight. She laid there for no more than ten seconds, but it felt like ten hours. She felt a pair of hands on her shoulders pull her up and away from the edge. It was Sazh, standing behind her as she sat staring at the edge. "Nothing we can do for her now." He said.

Lightning almost couldn't believe it. She could've sworn she could hear her world shattering, like the sound of glass breaking in the distance. Was she imagining it or had it even gotten darker? She turned and looked away from the edge when she heard whimper. Vanille was standing there with her arms at her sides, her eyes were watery and her bottom was quivering as she stared ahead. Lightning stood up and took a step towards her, but then stopped. The younger woman looked so fragile that Lightning was afraid if she touched her, she would actually break down into tears.

Sazh had no such problem as he walked over and put a hand on her shoulder. Lightning had been right though, as Vanille quickly burst into sobs. She threw her arms around the older man and began crying into his shoulder. "It'll be okay." He said as he held one arm around her and patted her on the back. Vanille continued to cry even as he consoled her, which came no surprise to anyone. The somber mood kept them all quiet except for Vanille's tears, which made the only new sound much more apparent.

"Does anyone else hear that?" Hope asked, breaking the silence. It only took a moment for the others to pick up on the sound, a few second later and it was loud enough it couldn't be mistaken. It was the sound of a very large set of wings. The tension rose as everybody prepared for the worst. "That thing couldn't have survived could it?" Hope asked.

As the sound got louder even Vanille stepped away and reached for her weapon, though she still had tears in her eyes. Then something began to appear over the edge of the cliff that left them stunned. It wasn't till they were halfway visible that anybody realized what was happening. As smoothly as if she was floating on air, Fang was rising up in front of them with her lance on her shoulder and a smile on her face. As her feet came even with the ground they realized she was standing on Bahamut in his dragon form. Fang stepped off of her summon as easily as if she was walking. She took a few steps forward and then turned around to wave him away as he took off into the air. "What a sweetheart." She said.

Lightning stared as Fang turned away from her departing eidolon to face them. She probably would've ran over and hugged the woman, but Vanille beat her too it. The small redhead collided with the taller woman with almost enough force to knock her down. "Wow there, you all right?" Fang asked, actually concerned as Vanille had begun crying again. "Never ever scare me like that again." Was the response she received through a break in the tears.

"What, you really thought I'd go down that easily?" Fang said, trying to cheer up the scared redhead, "I mean, I know it was big but gimme some credit."

"This isn't funny Fang, you could've died!" Vanille said as she took a step back and wiped away some tears as she began to calm down.

"But I didn't now did I? I'm alive and well and right here. Maybe I could be dead, but I'm not."

"But we thought you were." Lightning said, "You were down there a while, we didn't think you were coming back. For all we knew you were dead down there with the Zirnitra. For all we knew, you couldn't come back."

"She's right." Sazh said, "You scared us all, we thought we lost ya." He turned so he could face everyone, "But Fang's right too, she's alive, so let's just be happy for that."

"Yeah, I like that idea." Snow said, "Besides we shoulda known she was alive; after all, the hero's never die."

"Well, I just say we get outta here." Vanille said with a smile. She had stopped crying but her face was still red from where she was minutes ago. "I don't like this place right now."

"Sounds like a good idea." Fang said. She took a few steps forward, but then stumbled a bit. Lightning caught her with both hands on Fang's shoulders as a look of worry came over both her and Vanille's faces.

"Are you sure you're alright?" Lightning asked as she looked Fang up and down for signs of injury.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just a little worn out." Fang said as she straightened up. See the look on Lightning's face, and then on Vanille's she added, "I can walk on my own. I'm fine, I promise." She patted Lightning twice on the shoulder and the smaller woman removed her hands. "Alright, if you say so."

Fang turned around as Lightning kept her eyes on her to see if she would fall again. Fang appeared fine though as she faced the edged where she had fallen off earlier and shouted, "Hey you! We could use a ride outta here!" Lightning wasn't sure if the fal'cie could actually hear them, but even if it was just a coincidence Titan's massive hand still stretched out to send them out of the arena.

….

Back at camp things were settling down pretty well. Night had arrived a few hours ago, and with it a much stronger chill. With the cold settling in for the night everyone was gathered around the fire. It wouldn't be much longer before everyone turned in for the night. As usual Lightning sat just apart from the rest of her fellow l'cie, watching the conversations rather than taking part unless she was asked a question. Her gaze shifted between each member, but kept returning to Fang. Despite her claims that she was fine, Lightning couldn't help but notice that the huntress still seemed on edge and just a little shaky, even here at camp. It was most likely temporary, she had probably just not calmed completely from her fall with the Zirnitra, but it still worried the soldier. What if Fang had been hurt and just wouldn't admit it? That did seem like something she would do.

Before Lightning's thoughts could get any worse, the woman in question stood up. Fang brushed herself off and picked up her lance. "Well, my blood's still pumpin from before. Think I'll go for a walk, calm myself down before I hit they hay." She said.

"You okay Fang?" Vanille asked as she looked up from where she was sitting with worry on her face.

"I'm fine. Just need to calm my nerves a little is all." Fang said, hoping to put Vanille's worries to rest. The smaller woman smiled and nodded. "Just come back safe." She said, and then turned back to her conversation with the others.

Before Fang could leave Lightning stood up, "Hold up." She said. "I'm going with you." She picked up her gunblade from where it had been laying behind her and put it in its sheath.

"Oh you are, are you?" Fang asked as the soldier strode across the camp to stand beside her. Lightning responded simply with "Yes." Fang straightened to her full height and put her hands on her hips as she looked down at the smaller woman. "Why's that? Ya know, I don't need a babysitter. I can handle myself."

"Maybe so, but it's still better not to risk it."

"Well, if you insist then why should I argue? Let's go." Fang said before turning and leading the way out of the campsite. After only about fifteen minutes of walking they found themselves in a small clearing with the trees surrounding it having grown together fairly close, providing good cover. Fang entered the area followed closely behind by Lightning, both of whom had been silent for the entire walk so far. Fang spun around to take a quick look at the area and, on deciding this was a fairly safe place, decided to break the silence.

"This seems like a good place to stop." She said. She then turned around and faced her companion. "So what made you decide to come with me? Not that I mind."

"I don't know, I guess I just thought it was a good idea." Lightning answered as she walked past the huntress to stand in middle of the clearing with her back to her.

"Oh come on now. I don't buy that for a second. We're to different people, Light. For example, unlike me, you always have to have a reason to do something. So, I ask again, what's the reason?"

Lightning didn't answer but rather just stood there for a moment. She ran her fingers through her hair once, and then let out a deep sigh. She turned around to face Fang who raised an eyebrow at her, still waiting on an answer. Lightning stayed where she was for a moment, and then walked quickly toward Fang. Before the woman could react Lightning's right hand came up, grabbed Fang by the back of the neck, and pulled her down into a kiss. After a moments shock Fang recovered, she kissed the soldier back as her own hands came to rest on Lightning's hips.

Lightning broke the kiss first, leaning back to look at Fang. The huntress grinned a little and said "Well that was unexpected. But I don't think it was an answer." Lightning took a step back from the taller woman when she said this, breaking eye contact and looking at the ground. "Don't go doin' this again, hun. You gotta stop shuttin people out."

Lightning looked back up and Fang with her mouth open as if she was about to speak, then closed it and turned around. She let out another pent up sigh and returned her gaze to her feet. "I was scared, okay. Today when you fell off that cliff, I was scared beyond all thought and reason. I thought you were dead, Fang." At this Lightning turned around to face her as she spoke. Her eyes were watery, she wasn't crying, but the emotion was clear. "It was just like Serah all over again. Just like my parents. I lost them, now I've lost her. I don't want to lose anyone else Fang. I don't think I can."

Fang took a step forward and put her hand on Lightning's shoulder. She looked her in the eyes for a moment before pulling her into a hug and holding her. "Don't you worry one bit about losin' me, I ain't goin' nowhere." She said to the soldier who was resting her head on her shoulder. "I know what it's like losin' your parents, I lost mine too. But that's also why you should know I won't leave, cause I know how it feels to get left. As for your sister, you didn't lose her, remember? She's in crystal, she ain't dead. You'll see her again."

"But what if I don't." Lightning said as she held on to Fang, "It took you and Vanille five hundred years to wake up. What if Serah sleeps that long? She's the only family I have left Fang. How am I supposed to go on knowing she's in there, so close but so far away?"

"You just gotta hold on. If you keep goin' then things'll work out. You gotta fix what you can and just forget about the rest. Cause if you get to worryin' about things you can't fix, you'll drive yourself nuts. I should know, I didn't get this crazy bein born during peacetime."

"Thank you," Lightning said as she began to calm down, "but don't say things like that. You are not crazy, you're just a little different. You're a lot of things, but you're not crazy. You're strong, independent, and a better sister to Vanille than I was to my own flesh and blood. Serah deserved so much better than me and I failed her."

"Come on now, don't you go there. You're a great person, Light. And I may have never met her, but if even half the things I've heard about Serah from you and Snow are true, then you did a helluva good job takin' care of her."

"Thank you. Again." Lightning said as she took a step back, out of Fang's arms. "Look at me, I'm getting as emotional as Vanille, I'm mess." Fang put out an arm and lifted Lightning's chin with one finger to look in her eyes, "You look fine. And trust me, you ain't nowhere near as bad as Vanille." Lightning allowed herself a small smile at that.

"So did you just wanna talk about bein' sad, or was there any other reason you came out here. As much as I liked you sharing, well, it isn't somethin' you usually do, so what did you really want."

Lightning appeared to be in thought for a moment about how to say what she wanted to. "Promise you won't laugh?" she finally asked. Fang was taken aback by the question but quickly responded, "Well now I'm really interested. I'll do my best." Lightning took a deep breath as if preparing to say something difficult again. "The reason I came out here was, after today, at Titan's throne, I realized how little time we'd actually spent together and I just wanted to be with you. I know it sounds stupid and idiotic and I sound like some pathetic teenage girl, but that's really it."

"No, it don't sound stupid." Fang said as she smiled, "In fact I think you're right. We've had some fun, but we ain't just been together a whole lot with no one else around." At this Fang turned and walked towards the edge of the clearing. She pulled her spear from her back and laid it on the ground as she sat down and leaned against a tree. "Well what are ya waitin for? Sit down and we'll have ourselves a little chat."

"Really? You just want to sit and talk?"

"Sure, why not? I'm still a little worn out from the fight, so I'm not really planning on anything more vigorous, if you know what I mean. Besides, when's the last time you just sat down and talked with someone? And I don't mean small talk on guard duty like we pulled last night."

"Well, I guess this could work." Lightning said as she walked over and took a seat next to Fang. Not too close but within arm's reach. "And it was with Serah, when we were younger. Before I got too caught up with the Corps we would have night where we would sit and talk. Not about anything important, just sisters spending time together. When I started getting promoted though, that stopped. So I guess it's been a while."

"There, now was that so hard?"

"Harder than looked."

"I can believe that. I'm still glad you're talkin' though. It's good to share. I may sound like a bit of a hypocrite for sayin that, but it's true."

"Well I'm glad you like it. It still makes me nervous."

"And look at that, you're sharing some more. See, it gets easier. And I do like it, but you can still make it even better."

"And how's that?" Lightning asked. Instead of a response though, she was shocked as Fang suddenly turned and scooped her off the ground, and then proceeded to set her down on her lap.

"Like that." Fang finally responded, grinning at the soldier. She then asked "Comfortable?", though the woman looked anything but.

"Not really." She answered, and it showed. She was tense and had her hands fisted in her own lap. She had a very nervous look on her face and her eyes kept darting around. She turned her head to look at Fang and saw that the woman almost looked hurt by the comment so she added, "But I think I can get used to it. After all I am still new to this whole relationship thing."

"Oh so this is a relationship is it?" She said raising her eyebrows at the soldier.

"Well, I don't know what else we would call it."

"No, it's okay. I like that we put a name on it. I know we pretty much agreed on it before, but it's nice to hear it out loud."

"It is kind of different when you say it, isn't it? It's also something I've never been able to say before, I am in a relationship."

"That's somethin' I always wondered about. How is it that an amazing person like you never got involved with anyone, even once?"

"Simple, I spent all my time working. When I wasn't working I was taking care of Serah. Between the two I pretty much shut out my chance at a personal life."

"I guess I can see that."

"What about you? I know that you've been with other's but was there anything serious?"

"Not really. I dated a few but not a lot. There weren't a whole bunch of girls in Oerba who went for other girls. Tryin to branch out to bigger towns didn't help much either since the trip was so long."

"So you're almost new at this too?"

"Yeah, I guess you could say that. I got a little more experience, but not much. The few dates that I did have never lasted very long. Most of them either couldn't keep up, or just didn't want to."

"What about Vanille?"

"What about her?"

"I know you two are close, but how close? I remember when we first met you called her your 'partner', and when I asked if you were ever with her you said no, but that you had thought about it before.

"Dang, way to pick up on the details there. Well by partner, I meant we were branded together with the same focus. As for the rest, well, that's kind of a long story."

"Aren't you the one who said you wanted to talk?"

"Alright then. I've known Van for a long time. We both lost our parents in the war, and we met at the orphanage in Oerba, when we were young. We got to be pretty good friends as the years went on, obviously. Of course, at some point, we started getting interested in dating. Vanille was interested in boys, and I wasn't. I didn't even have to think twice to know I was into girls, it just came naturally. The problem was that the girl I knew best was Vanille. I enjoyed her company, we had been close for years, she wasn't bad to look at, and I knew I cared about her. I never actually told her I had a crush on her at the time, I was afraid I would ruin our friendship, since I knew she wasn't gay. When I actually got a girlfriend I realized my feelings for them were much different than for Vanille. I did love her, but more as a friend or a sister than as a potential date."

"So you realized you cared for her, but you didn't have feelings for her."

"Exactly."

Fang took a moment to look at the soldier during the break in the conversation. Lightning had relaxed more, no longer sitting in her stiff backed, near perfect posture. On closer inspection Fang also realized that Lightning's skin was starting to raise a little, and she had a barely noticeable shiver. "Cold?" She asked.

"I'm fine." Lightning said. Fang just continued to look at her. "Okay maybe a little. But I'm fine."

Fang wrapped her arms around the soldier. "I'll keep ya warm. So long as you'll do the same for me." Lightning relaxed some more into the taller woman, leaning in and resting her head on Fang's shoulder.

"This is nice." She said. After a moment's pause she added. "Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why is this so nice? I'm not exactly one to get all cuddled up like this, but I seem to a different person with you. It's just so easy to let myself go. I was just wondering why."

"I don't know. I guess you just never know who you're gonna fall for. If someone had told me back in Oerba that one day I'd be holdin' someone from Cocoon in my arms, and not trying to kill them, then I'd have called them a liar. Yet here I am."

"I guess after all that's happened this probably isn't the strangest. After all, I never thought I'd ever be on Gran Pulse."

"Yeah, sometimes life throws ya for loop."

"That's true, but all you have to do is keep on walking your own path, and you'll eventually find where you're going."

"How about if you don't like the path you're on?"

"Then you cut yourself a new one."

"I think I like that idea."

Lightning sighed and was silent for a moment. When she finally spoke, she didn't sound near as relaxed, "I hate to say it, but I think we should start heading back." Fang grinned as she responded "And why do you hate to say it? Did ya finally get comfy?"

"Yes I did." Lightning answered as she sat up more and stretched a bit, "But we really should be getting back. Lightning went to stand up and Fang moved her arms to let her. After she stood up Lightning turned and offered her hand to Fang, who accepted in and stood up herself. The taller woman picked up her weapon and sheathed it behind her back.

Neither woman bothered to say a word as they worked they worked their way back to the camp; they simply enjoyed each other's company in silence. On returning they found all three male members asleep and Vanille waiting for them. The younger woman turned and grinned as they entered the camp. "You two have fun?" She asked.

"Yeah we did. What about you, these lazy jerks all leave you up on watch?" Fang answered as she sat down next to her.

"Nah, I told them I'd take watch, that way if the two of you came back with sex hair it wouldn't raise any suspicions."

"Well thank you for that, but ya didn't need to. Me and Sunshine had a nice little session of talkin', nothing more. Besides, I don't get sex hair."

"Yeah, your hair's so wild you wouldn't, would you?"

"You know what I'm not even going to ask." Lightning said from her spot a short distance away from where the two Gran Pulsians were sitting.

"You don't know what it is, do you?" Vanille asked with a grin, and then turned to Fang. "What have you been doing wrong that she doesn't know?"

"Just so you know, I ain't been doin' nothin' wrong. It's just that—" Fang started to say, but was cut off by Lightning clearing her throat.

"You two can go to sleep if you want." Lightning said with an almost overly calm look on her face, "I can take the next watch."

"All right, I read ya." Fang said, and then turned to Vanille. "Let's hit the hay." The look on Vanille's face looked like she had just been deflated. Seeing this Fang leaned in close and whispered quiet enough that Lightning couldn't hear, "I'll tell you tomorrow." This immediately perked her back up. With a few quick good night's said between the three of them, Fang and Vanille went to sleep and Lightning settled in for her time on watch.

_**...**_

_**Well, I hope you enjoyed that. I know it's been a while but i've been fighting with writer's block, it's getting better though. That and getting sucked into a couple other games. As for the story, i knew going into this chapter that i wanted Fang and Light to have a real conversation, i did my best so i hope it turned out well. I also knew i wanted the Zirnitra battle to be big, i think it turned out alright. I would like to thank all my reviewers, you've really helped me out, and ask that any and all review some more; i've gotten much better because of them. Obviously constructive critisism is welcome, it has helped me quite a bit. I hope to have the next chapter up quicker, if possible. Thank you all for reading, see you soon.**_


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